Health minister confirms continued progress on cancer centre and plans for local review of patient safety

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 27th Jul 2010

South Lakes MP, Tim Farron, today secured confirmation from Health Minister Simon Burns, that plans to provide cancer treatment at Kendal will go-ahead under the new coalition government and that chemotherapy services will be available later this year. Work is ongoing on a feasibility study to bring radiotherapy to Kendal too - with that work set be completed around the end of this year.

During the meeting, Mr Farron was also successful in securing a locally generated public safety review of the decision to remove acute services from Westmorland General Hospital. Health Minister, Simon Burns, confirmed that the Department of Health would provide advice and assistance for the review and shared Mr Farron's concerns that not enough paramedics were employing thrombolysis.

Commenting Mr Farron said:

"First of all, I'm delighted that the Minister confirmed the green light for our plans to bring a new cancer unit to Kendal, but also that chemotherapy services will be available locally in a matter of months.

"I'm also extremely pleased that after years of trying that we have finally made progress in getting a review of patient safety of the decision to remove acute services from Westmorland General Hospital.

"The coalition's plans to devolve power on health issues away from central government, means that we are now in a position to set up our own review and finally get the answers we've been fighting for since the closure of WGH's coronary care unit two years ago."