On Monday in the House of Commons I tackled the Health Secretary Matt Hancock over his proposal to close down the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Royal Preston Hospitals.

You can see my exchange with him on my Facebook page.

He confirmed the proposal was on the table and a public consultation would be held to assess whether to upgrade the hospitals or to close them down and build a ‘super’ hospital somewhere near to Garstang.

The idea that patients in South Cumbria, and North Lancashire should travel even further to access emergency health care and other services is totally unacceptable.

I will fight tooth and nail to make sure this project does not go ahead. I haven’t spoken to one person who thinks this is a good idea. I have some advice for the government. Don’t waste public money on a public consultation that will be universally opposed. Instead invest that money to improve our existing hospitals and on paying our health care workers what they are worth and deserve.