Local MP Raises Westmorland General Case in Parliament

12.05.51pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 12th Oct 2006

Local MP Tim Farron spoke yesterday in parliament on the subject of the potential closure of Westmorland General Hospital, during a debate on the NHS workforce and services.

Responding to claims that services were improving across the board, Tim said:

"I acknowledge the investment in the NHS and the move towards community services, but the problem is that acute services cannot be operated directly in the community; they need good sized hospitals that are relatively close to where people live.

"One consequence of concentrating on specialist hospitals alone is that, in rural areas such as mine, one ends up with the situation such as that at Westmorland general hospital where the medical emergency admissions may soon be shut down because of the drive for the best. The best is becoming the enemy of the good enough."