Local Lib Dems joined scores of protestors to march on Saturday 24th June against proposed cuts to local NHS services. Councillors Wayne Hoban and Carolyn Baker took a frontline role in the protest, with Councillor Hoban giving a speech at the rally to call for an immediate halt to the planned cuts to the X-ray service at St Ann’s Hospital.

Cllr Hoban comments:

“Despite Labour pumping huge amounts of money into the NHS at the national level, we are seeing the results of their chronic mismanagement of the NHS – cuts to local services. The Government says that it wants to see NHS services transferred from NHS Trusts into the local community so that they can be delivered closer to where people live and work, but in reality, the very opposite is happening.

“In seeking to reduce services at St Anne’s Hospital there is a very real threat that the most vulnerable members of the community, particularly those with mental health needs, will suffer through the proposed contraction of services. We must take a stand now to stem this tide of cuts.”

Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey & Wood Green comments:

“It isn’t profligate spending that puts us over budget in Haringey. It is meeting the health needs of the people of this borough. Local people should not have to pay with cuts in frontline services and cuts in frontline staff in order to service debt created by Government for poorly centrally negotiated consultant and GP contracts. We need more control locally and less for our strings to be pulled from Whitehall.”