Stop using our hospital as a political football

Southport journalist Martin Hovden writes: Residents are being urged to join a fight to stop the CLOSURE of Southport Hospital.  

Great community campaign, you may say. However, there are NO plans to close the hospital.  Yet again, this is politicians jumping on a bandwagon which is non-existent and going nowhere.

 So shame on Labour/Liberal Democrat councillors and activists for creating unnecessary fear in our community, especially among the frail and elderly, plus those working so hard in the hospital itself.  

This bogus campaign has been running on social media in recent weeks. One of their leaflets clearly states: “Stop CLOSURE of Southport Hospital” with an invitation to attend a pubic meeting this weekend.  

The town's Tory MP Damien Moore was so incensed he put out a statement – after consulting with the hospital's chief executive – confirming there are NO plans to close the hospital.  

To defend their support for the non-campaign, Labour and Lib Dems ACCEPT there are no plans to close the hospital. But they then say some departments may be moved to another site and this is the thin end of the wedge. 

 REALITY CHECK: There is a huge difference between plans for possible changes to a department's location and CLOSING the whole hospital.  This is a disgraceful, incorrect interpretation of proposals by the hospital Trust.  

Compare this make-believe campaign with the dignified and truthful fight some years ago to stop the removal of our children's A&E department to Ormskirk Hospital. And the difference?

 That campaign was based on FACT – the Trust clearly stated they were going to relocate the department to another site. And they did.  I've reported on community campaigns all over Merseyside for over half a century and the golden rule is: Check your facts, otherwise you very quickly lose the trust of the public. 

And it takes a very long time to win it back  The past 18 months have been wretched for our country because of Covid. And as a nation we have quite rightly heaped praised on everyone in the NHS, who have worked day and night to combat the pandemic - including Southport Hospital.  Let's not throw that goodwill back in their face by suggesting they may be out of a job in the near future.