Mike Hill MP: I'll fight with all I have for our NHS

Make no mistake about it, I’m totally committed to our Hospital and all health access in Hartlepool and will fight tooth and nail for all those services.

But the task of any MP fighting to save health services is incredibly hard in the face of a Tory Government who seem hell bent on destroying and demoralising those who work in it.

Forget any point scoring or political ideology, all the evidence is there to show that doctors and especially nurses working in the NHS are being attacked from all angles.

Only this week the Bursaries for Student Nurses were brought to an end and for the past seven years austerity has meant nurses and all NHS staff have had derisory pay awards which have left them much worse off in real terms.

The most worrying statistics, however, have just been issued by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. For the first time in history more nurses and midwives are leaving the profession than joining.

Between 2016 and 2017, 20% more nurses and midwives left the service than joined it.

There are currently 40,000 unfilled nursing posts and the Bursary cuts will only make the situation worse.

The hardships facing nurses are obvious for all to see, but I saw it personally last week when a young student nurse came to my surgery desperate as she’s struggling to make ends meet and continue with her training.

Zoe Sutton is a real credit to the profession and has started an amazing campaign on social media to raise awareness of just how much of a struggle it is to get through university on a modicum of a Bursary, let alone without one!

The situation is beyond a crisis and the Tories are doing nothing to address it. In fact they are making a dire situation even worse.

So, yes, I’ll fight with all I have for our NHS, but I’ll be laying the blame for it’s current state firmly at the door of the party who have been in power for more than seven years.

l ONE person who’d be right behind our nurses would be lifelong Labour stalwart Betty Brotherston, whose funeral I attended this week.

Betty passed away at the ripe old age of 96 having been a Mayoress, Magistrate and tireless campaigner for Women and Hartlepool.

She’ll be a sad loss to her family, friends, the Party and people of the Town.