FORMER Colchester MP Sir Bob Russell has been on the picket line in support of workers at Colchester Hospital striking against their jobs being outsourced to a private company – and he has revealed he is being treated for cancer.

In a statement, Sir Bob, who is 78 and was Colchester’s Liberal Democrat MP for 18 years from 1997 to 2015, said: “Support work at Colchester Hospital was outsourced many years ago by a previous management, only to be brought back into NHS control several years later when a new management found that outsourcing was not the best way for the Hospital to provide an holistic service for patients.

“All support work has since been part of a united NHS team – it is appalling that the latest board of trustees has ignored the previous failure of outsourcing and proposes to repeat that ill-fated time at Colchester Hospital, demoralising much of today’s workforce who want to work for the National Health Service and not a private company whose ultimate aim is to make a profit out of the public funding of the NHS.

“The East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation NHS Trust should stop, immediately, the outsourcing proposals. An apology should be given to the staff whose jobs as NHS employees they threatened – and efforts made to restore the morale which the trust board has undermined by its ill-advised behaviour.

“I support the NHS striking staff 100 per cent. That is why, for a time, I joined NHS workers on the picket line in front of the Hospital.

“Last month I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I am now in my fifth week of treatment. I value the holistic approach of a unified National Health Service, which I am witnessing at first hand.

"It is absurd that aspects of working arrangements should be outsourced, with many loyal NHS staff transferred to a private company.

“Clearly I am not in the best of health at the moment. I have had to give up a lot of things I would otherwise be doing, although I am keen that it will still be possible for me to attend those events involving my role as High Steward.

“But I am determined not to be deterred by cancer’s unwelcome interruption in my life. Despite my ill-health, I am keen to support those NHS staff who are being so badly let down by the management of Colchester Hospital where I am getting fantastic treatment.”