MP SEEKS JUSTICE OVER HEART UNIT CLOSURE - Closure decision was 'wrong, dangerous and flawed' - Farron

11.50.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 31st Mar 2009

A county council committee which voted to close the Westmorland General Hospital's heart unit is coming under increasing pressure. South Lakes MP Tim Farron has today formally registered his concerns with the investigating officer who is handling an independent review of the process.

Mr Farron has highlighted his belief that the scrutiny committee based their decision on flawed evidence and that the committee ignored evidence that it was unsafe to close Kendal's much-love heart unit.

The investigation into the decision to close the heart unit comes about after formal complaints were made by Mr Farron, Cllr David Vatcher and Dr David Earnshaw last summer when the decision was made.

Speaking this morning, Mr Farron said, "The congestion at the Lancaster Royal Infirmary as a result of the closures, and the fact that one in ten ambulances does not contain a paramedic, is evidence that it was unsafe to close our heart unit. That evidence should have been blindingly obvious to the scrutiny committee and to its Conservative chairman, Cllr Bert Richardson. The committee chose to ignore that evidence - they also chose not to take any independent advice, preferring to listen exclusively to the one-sided views of the hospitals trust. Their decision was wrong, dangerous and flawed and we in South Lakeland are determined to get justice."