Hewitt hands over NHS decision - Guardian article.
Extract:
"Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, set up an independent inquiry yesterday into plans to axe NHS maternity units in north-west England that provoked a mutiny by her cabinet colleague Hazel Blears.
Ms Blears, the Labour party chair and a candidate to become deputy leader, is campaigning against a decision by regional health chiefs to close a maternity unit in her Salford constituency. At least 13 members of the government who support the principle of reorganising NHS services oppose loss of facilities in their own back yards.
Ms Hewitt can approve or reject NHS reorganisations and usually takes decisions off her own bat. But she would have provoked outrage among NHS managers in the north-west if she had reprieved maternity units in Salford and Bury, where Ivan Lewis, a junior health minister, is campaigning against closure."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment