Evidence is growing daily on the threat to St Michael's Hospital in Hayle.

Labour's petition to protect this valued hospital has had a massive response, including personal experience from patients and staff about how work is being diverted elsewhere and wards left empty while people wait for operations at other hospitals.

In the face of coalition cuts and the wasteful and unwanted reorganisation within the NHS, it is clear that senior managers are reviewing our services. The recent Health Initiative Cornwall report identified the threat to St Michael's. By referring patients elsewhere managers can then claim that the service is 'not used enough' and make closure seem inevitable.

Now NHS Kernow wants to put orthopaedic surgery out to tender. Orthopaedics is one of St Michael's specialities, with high satisfaction rates, and I question how selling the contract off to the lowest bidder would be good for patients or the viability of this much loved hospital.

Across Cornwall, the Labour Party is once again campaigning to save our local NHS. It was the Labour government in 1997 that saved our community hospitals from the Tory axe. It was Labour's Health Secretary in 2006, who announced that St Michael's would not close.

The axing of St Michael's, put simply, would be the wrong decision. Times are changing and finally the NHS is recognising the importance of locally available care. The Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust could put minds at rest by confirming that it will maintain St Michael's Hayle as a fully functioning local and specialist unit and is committed to its future.

Michael Foster,
Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Camborne, Redruth&Hayle,
Fostermco Ltd,
Port Navas