The future of the NHS is one of the hottest topics on the national political agenda right now, and west Cumbria is repeatedly finding itself at the centre of that.

There are currently proposals to significantly downgrade Whitehaven’s West Cumberland Hospital, centralising consultant-led maternity, 24/7 consultant-led paediatrics and acute stroke care in Carlisle.

If agreed, it would see women in labour travelling over 40 miles to give birth, the loss of the hospital’s Special Care Baby Unit, only very low risk paediatrics cases remaining in Whitehaven, and all stroke patients having to be blue-lighted along the A595 to Carlisle.

Although A&E is likely to stay open, it is feared it will be gradually eroded if other consultant-led services are lost.

The plans, from the Government’s Success Regime, are set to be finalised in the coming weeks but have already attracted widespread opposition from medics and the public.

The future of Keswick’s community hospital beds have also been under threat, though the preferred option is now to keep these open.



Rebecca HansonRebecca Hanson, Liberal Democrat
The Tories are behind the reorganisation of our NHS facilities in west Cumbria – the ‘Success Regime’ – and across the country the NHS is at crisis point, with operations being cancelled and long waits in A&E.

Our Labour candidate correctly complains about their behaviour but does not know how to challenge them in opposition. Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party is too divided to provide a credible opposition to this government.

I have substantial political experience at national level. I have used that experience to support the team fighting to save the consultant-led maternity unit in Whitehaven.

I have produced risk assessments to help change the minds of the key people who will be making decisions in Cumbria. I’ve exposed the madness and inconsistency of the supposed experts who consider these changes to be safe.

The decisions of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are crucial so I have been corresponding with Sir David Behan (CQC Chief Inspector) extensively and met with his deputy chief inspector this week to push this case further.

During this campaign, I had the great honour of bringing together many of our most senior and experienced healthcare professionals in west Cumbria.

These are the people who know how to fix our local NHS. They have great ideas which need the support of a strong MP. It would be my honour and my privilege to fulfil this role for them.



Trudy HarrisonTrudy Harrison, Conservative

All candidates in this by-election oppose any attempt to downgrade services at West Cumberland Hospital.

But as a candidate for the Party in Government I’ve already been able to speak to the Health Minister to make sure those concerns are understood in Westminster.

Having spoken to hospital staff, campaigners and people on the doorstep it is very clear that this is not a funding issue but one of recruitment.

We need to make sure we can attract enough talented doctors and nurses to our area so that vital services are sustainable.

That is why the Moorside development is so crucial for our area. It offers us a fantastic opportunity for investment which we should use as a catalyst to support growth across our economy.

Only by tackling the long-standing challenges we have been facing in this area for years, will we be able to recruit enough talented workers in health, education and across our constituency to provide vital services.

If I am elected I will use my experience of saving public services, like my local surgery and Captain Shaw’s School in Bootle, to make our voice heard on this issue.

Copeland has been ignored and forgotten for too long, we need a community champion to make sure our needs are heard in Westminster. If elected I promise to be that person.



Fiona MillsFiona Mills, UKIP

The biggest issue facing Copeland is the proposed downgrading of maternity and paediatric services at West Cumberland Hospital.

WCH and CIC are two of the smallest consultant-led maternity units in the country, so have always been run at a premium, but this was understood and funded due to the road and rurality issues.

Whitehaven has had a consultant-led maternity unit for decades and it has only reached crisis point because of the inability to recruit and retain permanent paediatric and obstetric consultants.

Reliance on agency doctors is expensive and unsustainable. Previous governments failed to plan ahead properly; they cut doctors’ training places. I am on UKIP’s Health Committee and helped write our 2015 policy.

I firmly believe that if UKIP health policy had been implemented, the NHS would not be facing the current crises. We would have trained more doctors and attracted them by waiving tuition fees.

I support the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recommendations which are endorsed by the Royal College of Midwives. The preference is for consultant-led services at both sites as long as they are safe. In order to ensure this I suggest closer hospital co-operation with Newcastle and other hospitals in the north east to help fill posts. We do not need yet another review as suggested by the Tories; we need to recruit.

On the positive side, the NHS in Cumbria is looking to integrate with social care and provide more appropriate out of hospital care. This is UKIP policy too.



Michael GuestMichael Guest, Independent (sponsored by Free Parliament)
The NHS is on its knees and I believe this is down to two parties squabbling to the detriment of people’s lives.

We need key research facilities and centres of excellence linked to the NHS and Nuclear in order to be able to provide key services that this area over any other should have as standard.

Our policing and emergency services desperately need extra funding.

It is tantamount outside of party politics that our local NHS is not used as a political football to drive their policies to the detriment of communities.

It is time that industry locally offers financial investment in our hospitals and medical care and that Copeland is seen as an ‘exception the rule’ to elsewhere in the country.

Key research facilities and centres of excellence are of tantamount importance. I will encourage industry-supported health care.

I will promote high values through technology, and research actively promoting healthcare in particular building industry links. The Success Regime in my opinion is a misnomer.

Our healthcare should be exceptional, world class and above all else should give our people what they need on their doorstep.

Copeland has been failed because of political interference.

It is my wish to be part of engendering true community involvement in developing the local economy and improving our quality of life and prosperity.

Walking around the many wards and streets we do not see any proportional financial investment especially in the health and wellbeing of our communities.



Roy IvinsonRoy Ivinson, Independent

The National Health Service is being made bankrupt by the food processing industry.

Ten per cent of the NHS budget is spent on sugar- diabetes type two, a totally avoidable disease, and this is just one of many diseases which are a product of what we eat.

The NHS in England spends a third of its budget on preventable diseases caused by cigarettes, alcohol and obesity. The multinational food manufacturers are contributing to this problem by continuing to manufacture and sell foods which are high in sugar, fats and salt – all of which are contributing to the health of the nation.

I support a National Health Service tax on manufacturers that produce food that contributes to ill health to get them to change the ingredients they put into their food to pay for the ill health that they have generated.

Fundamentally the problem with the NHS is the way in which it is financed.

As long as taxpayers pay the food processing industry they will have no incentive to change their ways and make their food and the nation healthier and stop the health service from going bankrupt all the time.

The people of west Cumbria pay their share of running the NHS and as such should have full access to a fully equipped working hospital. If elected I would make saving the hospital my highest priority.



Jack LenoxJack Lenox, Green Party
Of course, I am very concerned about the Success Regime and the proposed closure of the consultant-led maternity ward – and possibly also the A&E department – at West Cumberland Hospital.

The Mary Hewetson Cottage Hospital in Keswick has also come under threat in the past couple of years, and may well do so again.

I believe the fundamental problem here is the way in which we fund our NHS.

In addition to the privatisation measures put through by Labour during the Blair years, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats put through the disastrous Health and Social Care Act of 2012.

This has led to a creeping marketisation of the NHS which is now allowing Theresa May to offer parts of our healthcare service to Donald Trump as part of a UK-US trade deal.

Caroline Lucas – our Green MP – has been working harder than anyone else in parliament to put through the NHS Reinstatement Bill.

The bill is designed to undo the Health and Social Care Act and begin a process of reversing the privatisation of the NHS. She has found support from all corners of parliament for this and I am so keen to help her with this work.

Fundamentally, the NHS is under-funded. We are one of the lowest spenders on healthcare in Europe (about 8% of GDP, vs 11% of GDP in Germany) and it is no surprise that we score poorly on many metrics, including cancer survival rates. We need a properly funded, publicly-owned NHS.



Gillian TroughtonGillian Troughton, Labour
As a former NHS doctor, and volunteer blue-light ambulance driver, I’ve seen first-hand the challenges facing our hospitals.

The Tories want to downgrade West Cumberland Hospital – removing consultants from our maternity ward, close our A&E and remove the children’s ward.

Emergencies such as strokes and serious industrial accidents require medical attention at the earliest opportunity for the best chance of survival.

Adding 40 miles to your journey could literally mean the difference between life and death. I’ve driven an ambulance to Carlisle and the idea of a woman in labour having to travel all that way to see a doctor, is frankly dangerous.

Midwives have warned that mothers and babies will die if our maternity unit is moved to Carlisle. Members of the North West Ambulance Service have written to Jeremy Hunt, pleading with him to rethink his plans to cut vital local NHS services.

Furthermore, Government’s plans include removing all in-patient beds from Keswick Hospital.

The Tories are putting our NHS at risk. Their plans for west Cumbria are about costs, not care. This election is a choice, between giving this Government the green light to strip away our vital services, or voting Labour, and sending a message that it’s unacceptable.