HELPING people to make their voice heard in the campaign to save Felixstowe's Bartlet Hospital will be one of the main aims of a public meeting tonight .
HELPING people to make their voice heard in the campaign to save Felixstowe's Bartlet Hospital will be one of the main aims of a public meeting tonight .
Roy Gray, chairman of the Save Our Felixstowe Hospitals action group, was heartened to hear the Primary Care Trust had already received a large amount of responses to its consultation document Changing for the Better.
“That is good - but we still must do more,” said Mr Gray.
“We need to get as many responses to the PCT as possible to show exactly how the people of this town - this whole area - feels about these proposed cuts to our health services.
“Everyone must make their views known and write to the trust.
“We have six weeks left to do this and it is vital - we believe that if they have an overwhelming amount of people saying the Bartlet should stay, they cannot consult and go against the public, because that would be pointless.”
Up to 500 people are expected tonight at a health crisis meeting at 7pm at St John's Church, Orwell Road.
The aim of the meeting is to explain to the public why it would be disaster to close the Bartlet - and there will be a panel of experts, including Suffolk Coastal MP John Gummer, to speak.
“We will be placing on every seat a copy of the consultation document and a list of the action group's reasons why the Bartlet must not be lost,” said Mr Gray.
“We hope the people will use those to comment to the PCT and add their own views, too.”
The PCT wants to sell the rehabilitation and convalescent unit for £3.5 million for conversion to upmarket flats to help clear some of its debts.
People would then be sent home from hospital earlier to be looked after by travelling care teams.
The Suffolk East Primary Care Trusts has set a deadline of October 31 for views to be received.
It will then analyse them and compile a report, ready to make a final decision on November 30.
Want do you think of the health cuts? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail EveningStarLetters@eveningstar.co.uk
WEBLINKS: www.saveourhospitals.felixstowecommunity.co.uk
www.suffolkcoastal-pct.nhs.uk
www.suffolkeast.nhs.uk
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