RESIDENTS in York are being urged to sign a petition opposing planned health reforms by one of the city’s election candidates.

Tracey Simpson-Laing, who is standing for Labour in the Acomb ward for City of York Council at the May 5 poll, claims Government proposals to reorganise the NHS and allow more private firms to bid for work will damage frontline services.

She has appealed for people in the city to put their names to an online call for support in forcing a rethink over the reforms, which she says will risk returning the NHS to the “under-investment of the 1980s”.

She said: “We are already seeing the impact of the coalition Government’s cuts on NHS waiting times. To add insult to injury, plans for a massively expensive top-down reorganisation of the NHS are planned, which will jeopardise the high levels of patient care which have been established.

“I want people to look at what is happening to the NHS and take a stand. They can make this Government rethink what it is doing, and with people power we will get these dreadful reforms sunk.”

The petition can be viewed at frontlinenhs.co.uk