Chris Mole and Andy Burnham lay into Ben Gummer by saying that the only way he can be serious about the health service is by backing Labour’s plans.  All very partisan and stirring.

But there’s not a mention about Ipswich hospital and its status as something more than a district general hospital, which means one of:

1) Chris Mole doesn’t see the Hospital’s status as important to our health – but doesn’t really want another debate on it

2) It would be just rude to mention Ipswich hospital to Andy Burnham, a man who’s been degrading the hospital fairly systematically

3) The Hospital just clear slipped Mr Mole’s mind (after all Westminster’s hospitals are pretty nice)

So Mr Mole, why did you have a big announcement on health and not address the big health issue in Ipswich, is our hospital going to be a bog standard District General Hospital in five year’s time?

The Evening Star has a piece about a substantial step forward in the campaign to stop heart services being removed from Ipswich hospital.  Would it have been at all possible without Ben Gummer’s campaign and investigation?

In other words if had been left to Chris Mole then the heart services would have gone.  There’s no use denying this.  No matter how much Labour councillors hate it, being a marginal constituency – or ward – has its advantages.

The Evening Star have come up with a really good idea about the problem with the heart services and the fact that Chris Mole won’t get Ipswich the funding that Ian Gibson got for Norwich.  They’ve asked everyone in Ipswich to donate £1 – with 350,000 people in the catchment area of the hospital then this will pay the salary for three surgeons 

There may be some worries about sustainability, but Ipswich – like everywhere else – has to accept that we will have to find some solutions that aren’t dependent on more and more spending.  Eleven years of spending like teenagers who’ve come into an inheritance has left the country broke.  The cupboard is bare.  Relying on government largesse as the sole source of funding is one of the least sustainable routes.

When talking about Ipswich Hospital’s future there are legitimate questions as to whether we are getting our fair share in funding, but as a town we’re going to have to supplement this with other solutions.

Update:  It’s changed a lot since I wrote this.  This article in the Evening Star says that there will be moves to explore setting up a specialist heart center for Ipswich.  Well done Ben Gummer!  Now I have to replace the headline “Not good enough”.

So they are still going to move the heart services to Cambridge, Norwich and Basildon but at least we’re going to get some drugs in case the ambulance gets held up.

However it is progress, and if Ben Gummer hadn’t been making such a consistent fuss on this we wouldn’t even have got the drugs.

Still, keep up the pressure.