Mike Penning condemns Health Secretary’s teams of consultants who are being sent in to deal with NHS trusts with biggest deficits.

In a heated exchange in the Health Select Committee yesterday (6th December), Mike Penning forced Patricia Hewitt to admit that her so-called “teams of experts” being sent in to sort out deficits in the local NHS trust are in fact teams of accountants who are being sent to close down services.

Instead of providing cash and support for our hard-working hospital staff, Mrs Hewitt is sending teams of accountants to sort out the problems facing our local hospital. Hemel Hempstead MP, Mike Penning, who sits on the House of Commons Health Committee, said it is no wonder she refuses to visit Hemel Hempstead and face the people of our town. Her teams of “experts” are not health professionals, but accountants whose only remit is to save money by hospital departments and wards. They have no interest in saving lives or protecting valuable services.

If services are cut at Hemel’s hospital, local people will be forced to travel to the hospital at Watford – which is itself concerned that it cannot cope with the extra demand – and negotiate the congested Watford town centre roads adding many vital minutes to the journey time.

As the NHS in England faced a deficit of up to £620 million, Mrs Hewitt has shifted the blame for the health service financial crisis onto the shoulders of local NHS trust management who have been battling with Government red-tape and moving goalposts.