Save our NHS, photo Paul Mattsson, photo Paul Mattsson

Save our NHS, photo Paul Mattsson, photo Paul Mattsson   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Campaigners to save threatened Babington Hospital protested on 23 February at an NHS clinical commissioning group meeting in Derby.

The hospital in Belper, Derbyshire, provides a number of services such as blood tests, a baby clinic, specialist scans and 18 beds for rehabilitation, palliative and end-of-life care.

The clinical commissioning group claims that all services will be provided in a new facility in Belper but the 18 beds will not be retained and the projected cost of the new build may well exceed the projected budget, nobody will tell us the amount.

There has been no full, open and public consultation over hospital closures and the loss of nursed beds.

We can’t trust NHS managers to retain our services. Campaigners must continue to put pressure on and build the campaign.

The recent victories by campaigns that saved Glenfield heart unit in Leicester and Chatsworth ward in Mansfield show that if you fight, you can win.

Charlie Taylor, Derby Socialist Party