A Petition in support of NHS staff is being launched in the East Riding this weekend.

As campaigners wait to hear the latest development proposals for healthcare, Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart has launched the petition, which calls for action to protect healthcare.

Plans to cut Hornsea's remaining in-patient beds were scrapped last month after Mr Stuart made a legal challenge over the way the decision had been reached.

But the MP said he was worried the issue would resurface when a new public consultation is announced by the East Riding Of Yorkshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) in November.

The new petition was being launched in Beverley's Toll Gavel from 10.30am to 11.30am today. And a launch in Hornsea's Newbegin has been set for between noon and 1.30pm.

Mr Stuart said: "I want to influence the strategic health authority. so it gives back £8m that was taken away from the primary care trust in top slicing.

"If they were to give that money back, I believe our PCT is fully capable of improving services without cutting back to make short-term savings.

"The ward in Hornsea the trust wanted to close is just an example of cuts locally that are based not on clinical needs or health needs or even part of a programme of service changes.

"I am worried, not only about the high profile services such as the beds in Hornsea, but all the other services."

Mr Stuart said the NHS now had the worst deficit in history, resulting in cutbacks and closures.

He said: "If people want to know why their NHS services are suffering, they should look no further than the Government.

"The financial mismanagement of the NHS means the money from the Government's earlier NHS spending spree has been squandered and now staff and patients are paying the price."

Campaigner Elaine Aird, of Northfield Road, Molescroft, is backing the petition.

She said: "Our petition highlights Gordon Brown's responsibility for the NHS financial crisis.

"We want as many signatures as possible to show the huge support among members of the public for our NHS, its staff and the patients they serve."

The petition reads:
"We, the undersigned, call on Gordon Brown to stop his mismanagement of the NHS, which has resulted in deficits approaching £1.27bn, 18,000 job losses in NHS hospitals, service cutbacks and left many trainee nurses and doctors out of work.

"We want NHS money going to where it is needed, local people put in charge of local NHS services and short-sighted closures replaced with long-term measures that improve care for patients."