MP declares victory as Westmorland General is saved

South Lakes MP Tim Farron has thanked the thousands of local residents who have campaigned to save Westmorland General Hospital, after it was announced today that "there are no proposals to close any of the three hospitals at Barrow in Furness, Lancaster or Kendal."

Today the Cumbria and Lancashire North Clinical Commissioning Groups and the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust confirmed that they were submitting their "Better Care Together Strategy" to NHS England. The strategy contains proposals for the future provision of health and care services across the Morecambe Bay area.

They also confirmed that: "there are no proposals to close or privatise any of the three hospitals at Barrow in Furness, Lancaster or Kendal." Tim has said that he will now keep campaigning to bring more services to Westmorland General, particularly elective surgery and radiotherapy.

Tim said: "This is wonderful news and I want to thank everyone who has helped to campaign to protect our hospital. This is the most important campaign I've ever run and all our hard work has really paid off!

"I love our hospital, it was the place my children were born. We've won great new services for our hospital recently including chemotherapy, renal treatment and a new mental health unit. I hope that we can now build on our success of defending the hospital by extending the services offered there."