The ICB ( integrated Care Board), which organises funding and policy for healthcare in Cheshire and Merseyside, announced the first stage of closing Liverpool Women’s Hospital on October 9th. In the past, we have won the battle to keep Liverpool Women’s Hospital open; we can win it again!

Who are we? We are a group of campaigners who have followed this issue since the first attempt to close Liverpool Women’s Hospital. We attend all the Liverpool Women’s Hospital Board and ICB meetings, ask questions, and read all their paperwork. We work with the other campaign groups for the NHS and with local trade unions. We are not a section of any political party.

This presentation was given at the Save Liverpool Women’s Hospital Workshop a few days after the ICB announced its plans for Liverpool Women’s Hospital. We hope it can now be seen by those who could not attend the meeting.

Please help save our hospital by talking to people about the women’s hospital and the NHS, signing our petition, writing to the ICB, talking to your MP, and raising it at your union or campaign organisation. Also, help give out our leaflets, posters, and banners.

Please send us your comments, and help us hear what people think.

Please send donations to the campaign!

Other important issues face us as patients and staff in our health services in Cheshire and Merseyside and nationally, not least the so-called Winter Crisis, access to GPs and Dentists, the use of PAs under and unqualified staff, staff workload, and more.

We have too few beds, too few doctors, and a population made sicker by the denial of timely treatment.

The government has the power to change all this. Investment in healthcare, (when that investment reaches the patient and the staff, not some big corporation), is the best investment a government can make, with huge returns financially and socially.