A nationwide campaign has launched to protect services at local hospitals, such as those in Hornsea, Withernsea and Driffield. The Yorkshire Wolds and Coast Primary Care Trust, which is thought to be heading for an £11 million budget deficit, is planning to close Hornsea's Minor Injuries Unit and to cut the number of beds at the town's hospital from 22 down to 12. Many community hospitals around the country could be facing similar cutbacks. Campaigners have now joined together to form a national body called CHANT or Community Hospitals Acting Nationally Together. It is hoped this will increase the pressure on politicians to intervene. Councillor Polly Wersdale has been fighting the proposed cuts at Hornsea Hospital, she said: "We hope to save hospitals across the country ... there are over 90 that are at threat at the moment. "We're lobbying the MP's that are in London. We're going to discuss what we'll be doing in the future, how we're going to take the campaign forward. But it's very much a national campaign." "I'm quite proud that our little town, Hornsea, has started this national campaign. It's only because people feel so strongly about it and we [the councillors] feel that we've really got to take this forward nationally. It's the only way to go I think." The former Tory arts minister Boris Johnson is backing the campaign with Graham Stuart, the MP for Beverley and Holderness and also the chairman of CHANT. "Boris is the the vice-chairman, which is really good because he's very high profiled and just about everybody knows Boris." said councillor Wersdale. "Because he's on board I think we'll have a very good following. But having said that, my heart goes out to Graham Stuart because he's taken this forward at a national level, which I wouldn't have been able to do myself." | 
