MPs clash over health services
Wednesday 15th July 2009, 2:08PM BST.
Shropshire MP Daniel Kawczynski and Mid Wales MP Lembit Opik have clashed in the Commons over cross-border healthcare services.
Mr Kawczynski said the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital was losing £2 million a year because the Welsh Assembly has different ways of paying for treatment.
The Shrewsbury and Atcham MP said inequalities existed regarding access to drugs and waiting times as a result of Welsh devolution.
Raising the issues in a Westminster debate yesterday on Shropshire healthcare, the Tory MP said: “One of the most emotional and fraught experiences that I have had as an MP is trying to secure life-saving drugs for my constituents; they are not entitled to them, whereas people who live just a few miles across the border in Wales that use my hospital are automatically allowed those drugs.”
Mr Opik warned that if they went somewhere else – to Hereford or Aberystwyth – the hospital might have to become smaller. “On balance, the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital gains a net benefit from my Montgomeryshire constituents going there for their healthcare,” said the Lib Dem MP.
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Once again our MP for Shropshire MP Daniel Kawczynski is quite correct.
How can anyone explain to patients in the same ward at the RSH hospital that those on the left of the ward can have the LIFE SAVING medication, but those on the right will be left to die?
CRUDE COMMENTS MAY BE. BUT WHERE THERE IS LIFE THERE IS HOPE?
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