Writing for this week's Redditch Standard (March 22nd), Rachel said:
“It’s been just over a year since the Garden Suite Chemotherapy Unit re-opened at the Alexandra Hospital.
Since then, cancer patients from Redditch have been able to receive their chemotherapy treatment at our town’s hospital.
It’s worth remembering that the return of this service wasn’t guaranteed. Following its re-location to Kidderminster during the pandemic which local health bosses said would be temporary, they then came out and said they could make the move permanent – and I wasn’t going to allow that to happen.
Securing the return of this service to the Alex is an achievement I’ll forever be proud of, but I couldn’t have done it without the thousands of residents who signed my petition.
We made sure our voices were heard, and that’s what we must continue to do as we fight to return a maternity and children’s service to our hospital.
I have a plan to get these services back because I want the Alex to be a hospital where women can give birth and where children, no matter their illness or injury, can be treated. I believe this is achievable, but I’ve never said it would be easy.
These are local decisions which are made by local health bosses, and the Government has, I believe, helped our fight to return these services. The NHS is receiving record amounts of funding, there are more doctors and nurses working for our Acute Trust than when I was first elected and the next generation of NHS doctors will be trained at the Three Counties Medical School in Worcester.
I’ve demonstrated I’m capable of returning services to the Alex and I won’t stop until we have a maternity and children’s service back at our hospital.”
