Manchester Withington MP John Leech has today called for the immediate resignation of Cllr Eddy Newman as Chair of the Health and Well Being scrutiny Committee following his back door deal with NHS Manchester to close Withington Walk-in Centre.
In the June meeting of the scrutiny committee it was agreed by a majority vote that the Withington Walk-in Centre should be kept open and that Cllr Newman was to be tasked with writing to Secretary of State for Health to see what could have been done to reverse the closure of Withington Walk-in Centre.
Astonishingly Cllr Newman went back on his promise to contact Andrew Lansley and made a deal with NHS Manchester to go along with the closure of Withington Walk-in Centre if the closure of Ancoats and Wythenshawe Forum walk-in centres are put on hold.
John Leech MP commented, “Eddy Newman has sold Withington down the river, I think it is more than just coincidence that the Wythenshawe walk-in centre happens to be in his own ward of Woodhouse Park. The decision on the walk-in centre closures made by NHS Manchester came as a result of the £20bn that NHS Manchester had been told to find in savings under the previous Labour government.”
Didsbury East Cllr David Sandiford said, “Before the General election in May 2010, the Manchester PCT's finances were measured as poor and the recommendation was made to make 20% cuts across the board regardless of who was in government after May. Labour have been scaremongering even since trying to blame the closure of walk-in centres on the coalition government and this is simply not the case. I will be asking Cllr Newman for a full explanation on why he has taken this decision on Withington Walk-in centre at this Thursday’s Health scrutiny committee.”
John Leech MP went on to say, “I have written to all the Labour cllrs in south Manchester asking them to publicly disown Cllr Newman and join me in calling for his resignation.”
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