Kent News - Large convoy will follow Grant on her pram push

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Friday, September 3 2010, 6:15

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Large convoy will follow Grant on her pram push

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Helen Grant with pram on lorry joining her convoy

Helen with Darren Goldup of Staplehurst Transit

Tory hopeful Helen Grant will be joined by a convoy of lorries when she pushes a buggy 17 miles to protest about maternity services being moved from Maidstone Hospital.

Yourmaidstone reported this week that Mrs Grant is to push a pram from Maidstone Hospital to Pembury Hospital – where the unit is to be moved to in 2011– on Sunday, September 27.

Mrs Grant, who is the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Maidstone and Weald, hopes her walk on Kent’s main roads will highlight the risks that pregnant women could face if they have to travel that extra distance.

Since Mrs Grant’s announcement she has received offers of support from the community and has had plenty of offers from people wanting to join her on the walk, including vans, trucks, tractors and a convoy of lorries.

Marden Business Forum is backing her campaign and some of its members, including hauliers Staplehurst Transit and Claygate Distribution, have offered lorries to join the convoy.

A water tanker will be supplied by Water for Work and an industrial road-sweeper from Scarrab Sweepers will also join the convoy.

Reluctantly, Mrs Grant has had to decline the offers of extra walkers for company as part of the route is not suitable for large groups on-foot.

But Mrs Grant is welcoming everyone to show their support by sending her off on her protest walk when she sets off at 9am from Maidstone Hospital.

She said: “There is no good way of getting to Pembury Hospital from Maidstone if you are a mother-in-labour, especially if there are complications.

“I said I would push a pram the full distance to make the point, and since then I have been inundated with offers of support by people using any and all forms of transport available, including bicycles, motor scooters, motorcycles, cars, tractors, vans, lorries, juggernauts, and the local bus service.”

If Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust’s plans go ahead the consultant-led full maternity service at Maidstone Hospital will be moved to the new multi-million pound Pembury Hospital when it opens in 2011.

The service at Maidstone will be replaced by a midwife-run birthing unit where women with low-risk labours can choose to go.

The decision has caused outrage from fellow campaigners, including the Maidstone Action for Services in Hospital group (MASH), which Mrs Grant is a founding member of, and concerned parents.

She is collecting a petition against the move to send to Health Secretary Andy Burnham.
Mother-of-one Vicky Davis, from Boughton Monchelsea, is currently pregnant with her second child, she said: “I'd definitely prefer the emergency birth unit to be at Maidstone Hospital.

“I had a homebirth for my son Bert and I plan to for my next one, but that's only because I know if anything goes wrong I can call an ambulance and get to the hospital within half an hour.

“I don't know if I'd be so keen to have a homebirth if I had to travel further just in case of anything happening.”

Despite the backlash a spokesman for Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust said it remains confident that the changes will improve services for patients.

*Mrs Grant’s political rival Peter Carroll, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Maidstone and Weald, has also launched a campaign to keep full maternity services at Maidstone Hospital.

At its launch in Maidstone town centre last weekend (Sept 5) the Full Maternity at Maidstone campaign attracted 600 signatures on a petition also to be sent to Mr Burnham.

POSTED: 11/09/2009 09:00:00

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