Local Media – thecumbriachronic.co.uk

By health correspondent, Phillipa Beds

THE inability of local MPs to stop NHS Daleks from making drastic changes to local health services has been superbly illustrated by events unfolding at Barrow’s Furness General Hospital.

Tone-deaf NHS bosses on the local trust have just made only “minor revisions” to its plans to close this and move that – defying the very public foot-stamping of Barrow Labour MP Michelle Scrogham.

It’s one in the eye for the MP.

It’s also a far cry from last year when Scrogham, a former banking union bolshie, was on the election trail and looking for votes.

Pre-election, she was giving it the big un about the NHS in Barrow – not least in this toe-curling promotional video outlining her five priorities.

(Spoiler alert: One priority was to tackle “cold homes” but within months she had upvoted Labour’s snatch back of the Winter Fuel Allowance!)

In one scene, shot outside Furness General Hospital, Scrogs over-confidently stared down the camera and snorted: “Our NHS needs rescuing!”

It does now, under you!

PUTTING aside our suicidal political cynicism, the real story here is that Barrow’s MP has more than 18,000 votes behind her.

So for local NHS management to so easily disregard her representations gives you a good sense of the monster-like arrogance that now stalks the top floors of our hospitals where what the bosses say, goes.

Labour-friendly local media – including the Evening Snail, Cumbria Slack, and Radio Dumbria – have not helped either.

All they have done on the campaigning front is show a blind faith in the MP’s every utterance and a childlike belief in her mythical powers to intervene.

By republishing the MP’s every Press Release and never really challenging it, local Churnalists have fostered the impression that all “Super Scrogs” needed to do to stop these changes was fly into FGH and start kicking arses!

Instead of image-building for our MPs, wouldn’t it be novel if the local media actually pushed back occasionally and asked her why, within six months of her election, she has now failed on a campaign priority?

Or how about properly turning up the heat on the NHS Daleks and staff?

Ultimately, they are the ones who appear to be hatching these unpopular decisions between themselves because it suits them, with barely any recourse to the public affected by them.

I know, pigs might fly!