This Is Huddersfield Property - Local Property News Blog: Hands off HRI - Jeremy Hunt ignored us so we're taking our fight to London, say campaigners

Thursday 11 August 2016

Hands off HRI - Jeremy Hunt ignored us so we're taking our fight to London, say campaigners

Hands off HRI - Jeremy Hunt ignored us so we're taking our fight to London, say campaigners
Members of the Hands off HRI group begin their 24hr vigil outside Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.

Hands off HRI - Jeremy Hunt ignored us so we're taking our fight to London, say campaigners

#HandsOffHRI to join Save Lewisham Hospital and other high-profile campaigns

‘If Jeremy Hunt won’t come to Huddersfield we will come to him.’

That’s the message from #HandsOffHRI who will be joining other campaign groups on a visit to the Department of Health.

The group, fighting to prevent the closure of Huddersfield’s A&E, hopes to join other high profile groups, including Save Lewisham Hospital, in Westminster, on October 10.

Also joining #HandsOffHRI should be Lancashire campaigners Protect Chorley Hospital, Save Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire, and Save Dewsbury Hospital.

All are fighting proposed cuts and downgrades at their local hospitals.

Members of #HandsOffHRI decided to organise the London trip after the Department of Health, led by Mr Hunt, said the proposed closure of Huddersfield’s A&E was a ‘local’ issue.

Mr Hunt snubbed an invitation to meet Kirklees councillors earlier this year.

Two coaches, with space for 198 people, will leave St George’s Square at 7.30am on the day.

After a five-hour journey, #HandsOffHRI will join the other campaign groups as well as Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney and Dewsbury MP Paula Sherriff.

They then hope to deliver their message to the Department of Health, on Whitehall.

And if they can get permission, #HandsOffHRI hope to cross the road to Downing Street to make Prime Minister Theresa May aware of Huddersfield’s issue.

Campaign secretary, Nicola Jowett, said the situation in Huddersfield was not just a local issue but part of a wider national picture of cash-strapped hospitals reducing their services to balance the books.

She said: “We invited Mr Hunt to see the issues and he completely ignored the letter which we expected.