Kendal NHS SOS
The Kendal NHS SOS group was set up in 2005 by a few hospital staff and service users who were opposed to proposals to reduce the provision of mental health care in South Lakeland. Since then, NHS SOS has been leading the campaign against planned cuts at Westmorland General Hospital and has continued to challenge the wisdom in axing its vital medical services.
NHS SOS was successful in forcing our local Primary Care Trust to reverse its proposal to close our only mental health unit and transfer mental health services to Lancaster. It has also campaigned against cuts proposed by the University Hospitals Trust of Morecambe Bay, who were considering a range of cost-cutting options, including the wholesale transfer of medical services to Lancaster, axing the maternity unit and A&E and closing the only local cardiac unit.
The Hospitals Trust has recently "consulted" on options affecting medical services at Westmorland General Hospital and, in spite of public opposition, voted to transfer medical services and the Cardiac unit to Lancaster (without significantly increasing capacity at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary). To add insult to injury, the Trust also made public its plans to allow a private provider, Capio, to use the vacated units to provide "independent sector" care at the hospital - claiming that privatisation of local healthcare services would actually benefit local people.
SONHSG members have played a very active role in the creation of NHS SOS and have been very active in the campaign. It must however be noted that NHS SOS is not a political party but a
cross-party campaign group
dedicated solely to saving
Westmorland General Hospital.
To link to the NHS SOS site,
