Over the last week I have received a number of emails from constituents expressing their anxiety about the ongoing situation at Stafford Hospital A & E Department.

At the time of writing, Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust Board is due to meet on 10th November to make a decision on whether to authorise a temporary overnight closure (10pm to 8am) of the Accident and Emergency Department in order to deal with staffing shortages.

It is fair to say that the people of Cannock Chase deserve better healthcare than they have received over recent years. I am pleased to see that there have been big improvements at the Trust in the past year with one measure making it the best performing Trust in the West Midlands.

Whilst I accept the staffing problems the Trust have encountered, people here in Cannock Chase have already seen the removal of services from Cannock Hospital in recent years. I believe that closing the Accident and Emergency Department at Stafford Hospital, even for a temporary period, is a step too far and have made clear in an open letter to the Trust that they should delay any decision and instead continue to work together with the Department of Health and other relevant bodies to find an alternative solution.

The safety of local people in Cannock Chase is paramount in my role as your MP and it is my job to ensure that nothing is done to put your safety at risk. However, a closure would mean that some of you would have to make a 20 mile and 45 minute journey in order to find emergency healthcare. Ambulance services would be affected in the same way, more than doubling the time they take to get a person to hospital. A closure, I believe, would only serve to further damage the reputation at the Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust at a time when it should be doing all it can to rebuild trust with the local community.

We owe it to the local community to find a resolution to this problem without closing such a vital service, one that is literally a matter of life or death for my constituents.

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