While I welcome the recent £11 million commitment to Watford General Hospital, it falls far short of the investment that the hospital desperately needs.
Watford General is crying out for the transformative redevelopment that was proposed by the last Labour government nearly a decade ago, before it was cancelled by the Tory-Lib Dem coalition. The West Herts Hospital Trust needs £500 million for redevelopment and is currently underfunded by £53 million a year – a far cry from the £11 million our Tory MP has touted as a “major investment”.
We have seen significant cutbacks in the NHS since the Tories came to power, which have severely affected the lives of staff and patients.
One of the biggest challenges the NHS currently faces is a chronic lack of staffing. The NHS is short of 100,000 staff, with one in ten mental health posts unfilled. Perhaps the government should have thought harder before deciding to cut the NHS student bursary, which has caused application to nursing degree courses to fall by a third.
This reckless Tory government is clearly not serious about ensuring the long-term future of the NHS. Watford and the rest of the country deserve world-class healthcare, but they will not get it so long as the Tories are in power.
Tory policy has led to services being cut to the bone and they seek to rectify this with funding increases that amount to little more than gestures, rather than really tackling the funding crisis. The people deserve better and they will only get it with a Labour government.
Chris Ostrowski
Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Watford
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