SaveWycombeHospital supporters form chain outside Wycombe Hospital
Supporters of the SaveWycombeHospital campaign group have formed a chain outside Wycombe hospital with their hands up to show they want downgrades at the hospital to stop and services restored.
Campaign leader Miss Ozma Hafiz said : ‘Decisions are currently being made under NHS ‘Sustainability and Transformation plans’ and our local area could lose more health services as a result. We’re asking our Health Secretary to talk to other decision makers and reminding him of his ‘proudest political achievement’ of helping to save Surrey A&E.
Our hand campaign is about zooming out and uniting the community and not particularly aimed at anyone, but we’ll be tweeting the image from our protest photo to our Health Secretary. We were joined by a lovely mix of people including some of our former mayors and councillors.
It’s not only important that we stand up for our own hospital, being one of the first to face downgrades we need to challenge the direction that the NHS is headed with other hospitals now following suit.
The mere fact that we are campaigning more than 10 years on should speak volumes.‘
Local business owner Azher Raja has been supporting the campaign with generous donations of posters. He said ‘We at Singlamarket fully support the campaign to Save Wycombe Hospital and have been more than happy to assist in any way we can to help raise awareness for this worthwhile cause‘.
High Wycombe residents Sarah-Jane Fell and Lynne McGuckin were part of the human chain outside the hospital.
Sarah-Jane Fell said : ‘High Wycombe is a big town and getting much bigger, we need a fully working hospital. Not NHS staff on their knees and patients suffering. Wycombe hospital is a good one, the staff are caring and we need to keep it.‘
Lynne McGuckin said : ‘A town with 120.500 residents needs full hospital provisions. It is presumptuous to assume that all people in need can easily meet the overheads to travel to another town. The most vulnerable i.e. children, elderly and disabled and their carers may struggle and this could result in the loss of lives.‘
The SaveWycombeHospital campaign group plans to go back to the Department of Health with more signatures, the petition can be found on the www.savewycombehospital.com website.
People are also welcome to continue to help raise the profile of the SaveWycombeHospital campaign by submitting pictures with their hand in the ‘stop’ position as part of the picture protest #HandsUpForAHandBack, these can be as individuals, small or large groups.
