This is Daryl Stanbury's response to my enquiry about his views on this matter, having directed his attention to the FB page:
On reading the Facebook page you have sent me, I must say that I am fully in support of the movement that has developed to save the Honiton Aftercare Unit.
In my opinion, this comes down to a very simple issue of cost cutting resulting from a centralised healthcare system that looks at the top down, rather than looking at services and the provisions communities need from the bottom - up. The centralisation of public services, whether it be healthcare, maternity, policing etc has had so many detrimental effects on local services, and you will quickly find that local political systems such as the District Council have have little power in preventing such declines in local services like what we are seeing in Honiton. With the way things currently stand in our political system, when decisions to shut local services are made, there is no one to hold accountable except Westminster, who look at costs and services from a centralised national level rather than what local communities actually need.
It is quick clear that there is a demand for such a service in our constituency and without getting too political, there are so many national projects and current schemes that are wasting billions of pounds, but at the same time we at local level are seeing the real affect of cost cutting on the ground.
I think I share the same view as other candidates for the constituency that this service is one that we would all like to see saved and if elected i can say that I would most certainly fight to save the unit by bringing a united front of MP and local government together and holding the local NHS trust to account. Government should focus on cutting waste rather than services across the nation in an effort to balance its books. Once again not to get too political on the issue but i can certainly name a few things to cut that would save far more money and not affect the UK nationally or locally, including saving £45 million a day on the EU (as well as a range of other cost saving plans we have put forward).
From a party point of view, UKIP and I have a range of policies to ensure these type of issues can be avoided. These include:
Making local government far more accountable by devolving power from Westminster and ensuring local government is able to make these decisions based on local needs rather than regional NHS targets.
Introducing locally elected Health Boards where people want them and this will introduce democracy into a overly centralised healthcare system that needs so much more accountability in the decisions it makes or at least explain to the local populace why decisions are being made to allow for full public consultation.
Scrap all plans for continued aspirations of regional government in the South west that will cause another layer of top down government and cause a further lack of accountability for policy makers who should ALWAYS be answerable to the local people these decisions will affect.
I apologise if this answer is long winded and a bit too political, however I wanted to be up front and honest wit you in terms f what I as a candidate can offer to try and save this vital service. All parties standing in this election will pledge to save the unit but how they plan to do this will be very difficult to formulate as most will continue to preserve centralised public services.
I hope my response is adequate. For this unit to be saved and continue providing a fantastic service to new parents, our new MP needs to really take the fight to those who are accountable for this decision and also campaign to have local communities to take power over these issues for themselves.