A GOVERNMENT health minister is set to visit west Cumbria tomorrow, campaigners have discovered.

Philip Dunne, Minister for Health, will visit the West Cumberland Hospital, Whitehaven, which is facing major service cuts.

The We Need West Cumberland Hospital protest group was initially leaked details about the visit. Now several of the campaigners have received formal invites to meet the minister during his trip.

Copeland MP Jamie Reed, who has long been calling on ministers - and particularly Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt - to visit west Cumbria and the Whitehaven hospital, will also be there.

He said: “I have received notice that the new Minister of State at the Department of Health, Philip Dunne MP, will be visiting the West Cumberland Hospital tomorrow. I will accompany him on that visit and I have requested that he meets with members of the We Need West Cumberland Hospital group - local people who campaign tirelessly to protect and improve services at the hospital.

“I am pleased that after literally years of asking, a government minister has listened to my multiple letters and Parliamentary Questions calling for a minister to visit the West Cumberland Hospital. This way, the Minister can see for himself the unique challenges that we face."

Mr Dunne's predecessor Ben Gummer had promised to visit west Cumbria following a meeting with campaigners in London.

However Mr Gummer was then promoted in Theresa May's reshuffle and moved out of the Department of Health.

Mr Dunne became health minister, and there have been calls for him to take up the visit promised by his predecessor.

Lynne Davies, of the campaign group, said they had seen a leaked itinerary showing that the minister would travel to the West Cumberland Hospital for a meeting with bosses.

They will include hospital chief executive Stephen Eames and medical director Rod Harpin. He will then tour the maternity unit - which could lose its consultant-led service if controversial plans put forward by the Government's Success Regime are approved.

However there are concerned that those on the list to meet him are mainly Carlisle-based consultants, not those working in the west.

They include new clinical director, Dr Ajith Wijesiriwardana, who last week caused controversy when he said the distance between the Whitehaven and Carlisle hospitals was "not actually that far".

Mrs Davies said despite being promised a visit by Mr Gummer, campaigners were not officially informed. However, after the itinerary was leaked, they received formal invites to meet him.

She said: "I think we can only describe him visiting as a positive as he is fulfilling a promise made to us in Parliament by Ben Gummer, but it's disheartening that he is only speaking to the clinicians that are mainly based at the Cumberland Infirmary."

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