A great deal of my time is taken up at present with trying to secure the necessary and full range of medical services for my constituents in the light of the West Sussex PCT’s Fit for the Future consultation.

It looks as though the Support the Princess Royal Hospital campaign and everyone else involved has succeeded in persuading the PCT that we have to keep an A&E department at the Princess Royal Hospital. The problem now lies in the maternity services.

It seems inconceivable to me that an area designated for such rapid growth by the Government could not possibly be without a full maternity service at the PRH.

As I said when giving evidence to the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee at West Sussex County Council on the 5th March, there is a really excellent maternity unit at the PRH with highly skilled midwives and consultants, conveniently located and whose services were recently marked out as being excellent. It must be retained.

Although East Grinstead has mercifully escaped the Government’s Post Office axe we have lost four branches across Mid Sussex in Burgess Hill and in Haywards Heath.

These Post Offices are vital to the social fabric of all our lives and I shall be considering how best to secure the future of what remains of the network in Mid Sussex.

It is quite clear that the Government will try and come back for a further bite which we will resist at all costs.