Ex-mayor continues attack on MP (From Bucks Free Press)

Ex-mayor Darren Hayday continues attack on MP Steve Baker

3:16pm Tuesday 20th November 2012 in News By Lawrence Dunhill

Mr Hayday (left) and Mr Baker (right) meeting Andrew Lansley in 2009

A FORMER Conservative mayor has continued his attack on Steve Baker – saying he “nearly fell off his chair” after reading the Wycombe MP’s response to his previous letter.

Last week Mr Baker defended his stance on Wycombe Hospital after Darren Hayday accused him of ‘making warm fussy noises and sitting on the fence’. The Tory MP said: “Some criticisms are unreasonable, and I think it’s unreasonable to say we should be demanding A&E and maternity back.

“Of course I want them back but it would be misleading the public to pretend that we can get them back.”

After reading the comments Mr Hayday wrote to the Bucks Free Press: “I nearly fell off my chair....I may not be alone when I say this. I do think that it’s reasonable to fight to get these services back to Wycombe Hospital, along with the others that we have lost in the last few years.

“I pay my taxes and expect to have a return in services such as an A&E department in our town.

“I am honestly fearful being a parent and in the future being faced with the dilemma to which hospital would I rush my child to in an emergency situation now that we no longer have an A&E department.”

Mr Baker responded: “We would all like to have kept A&E but I don’t get to direct the doctors in what they do.

“The easy way in politics is to deal with slogans and rhetoric, but I would have been failing in my duty to the public by doing that.”

The decision to close the A&E ward at Wycombe Hospital was made by the Buckinghamshire NHS, and Mr Baker argues that opposing the closure would have “flown in the face of what the health professionals are saying”.