More than a thousand people took to the streets of Huntingdon to support a Hunts Post campaign to safeguard the future of Hinchingbrooke Hospital.

The Hands Off Hinchingbrooke campaign was launched amid fears that the hospital - which serves a population of 160,000 people - could close.

And although further investigation by The Hunts Post team revealed the hospital was not a target for closure, it was confirmed the East of England Strategic Health Authority axe was hovering over Hinchingbrooke - with the A&E, intensive care and other essential front-line services at risk.

In two weeks, The Hunts Post gathered signatures from more than 2,000 people on a letter to the SHA demanding a guarantee that the future of front-line services at Hinchingbrooke are safeguarded.

Editor Andy Veale said: "So far this campaign has attracted huge support and has been a real success.

"The SHA has underestimated the depth of feeling that people have for Hinchingbrooke Hospital.

"While the hospital may be in debt because of the flaws in its funding, the care provided by the staff is officially some of the best you can get within the NHS.

"It is the ridiculous funding situation, which favours foundation hospitals, that has left Hinchingbrooke in this crisis and we are not prepared to allow our hospital to become a scapegoat which allows the NHS to help balance its books."

The newspaper has also sold almost 1,000 car stickers to people supporting the campaign, has provided campaign posters for businesses across the district and - along with Unison - roused 1,000 people to a march in support of the hospital.

The campaign has attracted praise from the hospital's staff, the public, MPs and councillors.

A consultation process which will examine all of Hinchingbrooke's services has now begun.

The Hunts Post says downgrading of the hospital would leave emergency patients facing long journeys along already overcrowded roads to hospitals in either Peterborough or Cambridge.

---

E-mail this story to a friend:
Your name................
Your friend's e-mail..

---

Back to the campaigns index

---

Do you have a story about the regional press? Ring 0116 227 3122/3121, or e-mail pastill@nep.co.uk