A petition set up to save Burton Hospital’s A&E department from a potential downgrade has surged past 40,000 signatures as the response is labelled an “overwhelming vote of confidence” in the unit. People from all over Burton, South Derbyshire and surrounding areas have been putting pen to paper to have their say on the future of the town’s life-saving unit.
Passionate residents have been joined by MP’s including Andrew Bridgen and Heather Wheeler, who have thrown their weight behind the campaign which voices outrage about proposals outlined in the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) for Staffordshire to turn an emergency unit at either Burton, Stoke or Stafford into an urgent care unit.
The plans were made by a county-wide review board which is looking into how money can be saved on Staffordshire’s health bill, while making treatment more efficient.
The petition, which was set up by Burton MP Andrew Griffiths to present to those making the decisions on the hospital’s future, has now received a whopping 41,696 signatures online, while paper copies are also mounting up and have yet to be counted but could well take the total closer to 50,000.