Newly-elected MP for Scunthorpe, Sir Nic Dakin will hold talks with hospital bosses after a decision to downgrade services at Scunthorpe General Hospital and move them to Grimsby.
The meeting will take place this week in a bid to reverse the approval by the NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board to reduce the number of patients being treated in Scunthorpe and transferring them to other hospitals in Grimsby and Hull.
The treatment of medical specialities for people with heart, lung or stomach conditions will no longer be based in Scunthorpe. Furthermore, trauma treatment will be at Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital, Grimsby.
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Members of the board agreed the aims to create “seven-day consultant-led care and improved clinical outcomes for people living in northern Lincolnshire.” Sir Nic said he shared the concerns of residents in the Scunthorpe area that they will struggle to get to hospital in Grimsby.
“We shall be looking at the best way forward. We can’t have health services, other than the very best for local people. Not everyone has transport or have a car. The demographic of patients are those most unlikely to have a car. The plans have not been thought through,” said Sir Nic.
The MP will also be monitoring the move to build a new electric arc furnace at Scunthorpe steel works. He said he was worried about the decision at Port Talbot steelworks in Wales where 2,000 jobs were put at risk with a shift to new steel production technology, which requires less workers.
Sir Nic said: “We can see what is going on at Port Talbot and we will face similar challenges.” The Labour MP – who was back at Westminster on the same day as his 69th birthday, was MP for Scunthorpe from 2010 to 2019, when he lost out to Holly Mumby-Croft of the Conservatives.
He described his first week back at Westminster as a “whirlwind.” “The two issues of health services and challenges at the steelworks are hurtling towards us very quickly,” he said.
Before the 2019 General Election, he served as an Opposition Whip. He has returned this time as a Government Whip.
The former Principal of John Leggott College will join his other whips in ensuring Labour party MPs vote in the way their party leader, Sir Keir Starmer wants them to. Whips read out the results of votes in front of The Speaker.
They also have a role in supporting new MPs. There are 335 new MPs out of the 650 in the House of Commons.
“It is different from being an Opposition whip. When you are a Government whip you are helping get the Government get its business through. In Opposition you are trying to stop it. It presents different challenges,” he told.
Sir Nic said: “There are so many new MPs starting this week. There are more new MPs than serving MPs who have returned. It is a big new job for them and there are huge demands on MPs and I shall be there to support them. They have huge responsibilities and with such a large number of MPs they will all need staff to support them and accommodation.”
Original artice: https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/all-about/scunthorpe
