At Prime Minister’s Questions today, Michael Fabricant welcomed the money promised in the Budget yesterday for the Health Service and said “it will help repair the damage done over the last couple of years”.

He then went on to ask: “Is the Prime Minister aware that just as the Chancellor of the Exchequer was announcing the Budget statement yesterday, the cash-strapped South Staffordshire Health Authority was announcing proposals to close the Hammerwich Hospital and the Barton Hospital, together with proposals to close the maternity unit, dialysis unit, and to slim down the minor injuries unit at the Lichfield Victoria Hospital? Will he now please promise to intervene and prevent these closures from going ahead?”

The Prime Minister refused to intervene to prevent these closures. Later, William Hague said in the Chamber that people would only believe the Prime Minister’s commitment to the Health Service if he intervened to prevent hospital closures.