Councillors fight NHS budget cuts

Grange ward councillor and executive member for health Denise Capstick and Simon Hughes MP led a campaign collecting hundreds of signatures against health cuts outside Bermondsey tube statio.

Cllr Capstick was joined by fellow councillors including her Grange ward colleague Bob Skelly, Danny McCarthy and David Noakes of Cathedrals ward and South Bermondsey ward's Ade Lasaki.

Southwark Primary Care Trust has balanced its books but cuts are being made because of overspends by NHS trusts elsewhere in London.

Local Lib Dems blame the Labour Government for £22.4 million cuts from Southwark's health services, with Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital Trust losing £8 million.

"I know how difficult it is for health staff to work in such current conditions." says Cllr Capstick, herself a practising nurse. "Nurses and other professionals are overstretched, with morale at an all time low due to ward closures, job cuts and constantly changing government targets. This is not in the interest of patients."

"These cuts are the responsibility of government mismanagement, with trusts in other boroughs overspending. It's totally unfair that people in SE1 should have to pay for their mistakes."

Simon Hughes MP added: "To punish North Southwark and Bermondsey's well run services is totally unfair."