News from East Midlands Labour

“East Midlands NHS could face repossession under Conservative plans” – East Midlands Minister

Labour’s East Midlands Regional Minister and Care Minister, Phil Hope MP, has today warned that the Conservative’s controversial plans to abolish current limits on hospital debt and give NHS hospitals unlimited scope to borrow money secured against their buildings and equipment could put essential NHS services in the East Midlands at risk of repossession.

In challenging senior local Conservatives in the East Midlands to say whether they agreed with these controversial plans Phil Hope said:

“For all David Cameron’s warm words about the NHS, the truth is that his Conservative Party would let hospitals right here in the East Midlands go bust.

“The Labour Government has given the NHS the investment and support they need to improve quality and bring waiting times down. The Tories want to use hospitals as collateral for raising unlimited debt, putting essential NHS services at risk of repossession.

“The Tories even admit that this ‘will entail risks to the assets necessary for the provision of essential NHS services’, yet unbelievably they still think putting our NHS at risk is the right thing to do.

“I wonder if senior Conservatives here in the East Midlands will be honest and admit whether they support these plans.”

Labour’s Health Secretary Alan Johnson MP added:

“The Tories talk tough on controlling debt, but their own plans would risk unleashing billions of pounds of uncontrolled debt into the heart of our NHS, with nobody to step in if hospitals went bust.

“We saw only last week that if you scratch beneath the surface, David Cameron’s party still contains people who think the NHS is a ‘mistake’. Now we can see that for all his reassuring talk about the NHS, under a Conservative government your hospital would be used as collateral for raising unlimited debt.”

Other news from East Midlands Labour

• Minister joins Mums and Dads across the East Midlands to Save Our Sure Start - 17 March 2010
• New figures reveal Car Srappage Scheme's success in the East Midlands - 15 January 2010
• It would be great to see "football coming home to Nottingham" - 17 December 2009