'We are depending on you,' patients tell health chief

WES STREETING TOURS ORTHOPAEDIC HOSPITAL

- BY JANE HAYNES

PATIENTS battling life-threatening cancer told Health Secretary Wes Streeting to do everything he could to 'safeguard the NHS' and 'we are depending on you' as he toured Northfield's celebrated Royal Orthopaedic Hospital.

The health chief visited the world class specialist hospital, one of Birmingham's oft overlooked health gems.

Patient Andrew Foster, 63, told him in no uncertain terms that it was his duty to safeguard the NHS and protect hospitals like the ROH. "If I hadn't got here, to these specialists, I'd be dead by now," said Andrew, who has a complex bone tumour.

"We are depending on you," he told Mr Streeting, who pledged that he was determined to ensure the 'best of the NHS' exemplified at the hospital was reaching 'the rest of the NHS.

In an interview with the Mail, he said: "This is a really special hospital... it is world-renowned for the quality of their care and the quality of the medical science they are developing and using.