A 10,000-name petition calling for a local hospital to have its three-star status returned has been delivered to Downing Street by the Norwich Evening News.

Editor David Bourn and health reporter James Bigg travelled to London with Norwich North MP Ian Gibson to deliver the petition, part of the paper’s Justice for the N&N campaign.

The newspaper is calling for Health Secretaty Alan Milburn to return Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital to its three-star status, which it lost in July when it failed two of the Government’s nine key performance indicators.

The lost star meant it missed out on a £1m Government handout given to the best performing Trusts and also the chance to become self-governed.

One of the key performance indicators failed was for cancer waiting times, the other for failing to treat every in-patient within 18-months of being referred – caused by a clerical error when a temporary secretary forgot to book one patient’s appointment causing the patient to miss the 18-month deadline by 10 days.

Now the paper is hoping to meet with Alan Milburn to discuss the decision.

Editor David said: “Anyone with a sense of natural justice can see that our hospital deserves to get its star back and now we have taken our fight right to the very heart of Government.

“The huge number of signatures on our petition shows the depth of feeling about this injustice and now the Government will hopefully get the message.

“We look forward to putting our case to Mr Milburn. If he thinks we are just going to accept this quietly then he is sadly wrong.

“The Evening News will not give up until we have won this battle.”

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