Our NHS and hospitals are now in crisis

I just wish Labour would do us all a favour and come clean and say so! Then perhaps we could get past the denials and spin and start to address the real issues in the NHS today. Of course, the latest saga locally is the proposed closure of a ward for elderly patients at Fairfield Hospital.

The trust says they don't need the ward and closure would save money - so what was the ward for in the first place? Or have we been wasting money?

This comes following the announcements that our hospital NHS trust is millions in debt and that perhaps as much as 350 staff could lose their jobs. No doubt we will be told we can do without these staff (have they been a luxury we can ill afford - somehow I doubt it).

But as if that isn't bad enough we are expected to believe that services will not be affected.

Surely the only way that could happen would be if extra demands are made on remaining staff. I would hazard a guess that they will be affected and so I suspect will their performance and morale, despite their best efforts.

And as if all that wasn't bad enough this whole sorry episode is played out on a backdrop of "service reconfiguration" throughout Greater Manchester, with ongoing threats to crucial services at our local hospitals. As we move towards the winter months - a seasonal time for bed shortages in our hospitals - what we need now is action on the ground to ensure services do not suffer at this crucial time, to ensure patients aren't put at unnecessary risk by reorganisation or financial problems and to ensure that our NHS continues to provide the level of services we expect of it at a local level. I would urge the Pennine Acute NHS trust to halt any proposals to close any wards until a full consultation has taken place and even then not until next spring at the earliest. Close wards for the elderly and you put them at risk. It's as simple as that.

VIC D'ALBERT, Parliamentary candidate, Bury South Liberal Democrats