Get a grip! It’s not me saying that. I am just quoting Jon Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, who was talking to/at Jeremy Hunt in Parliament this week.

The man has a point, though, and the same suggestion should be put to the Success Regime.

We know the NHS is in a bit of a state when the Red Cross suggests there is a humanitarian crisis going on in this country.

But what exactly is being done about it?

I know what we are doing locally and, while I am no expert, I can see no wisdom in it whatsoever.

I would imagine that most of us who are facing radical changes to health provision would believe that, no matter how they have fought and campaigned and attended meetings, signed petitions and written letters, the deal is done.

In the case of Maryport and some of the other cottage hospitals around the area, that means the removal of beds.

Oh, we are being offered the carrot of new and shiny clinics and more people staying in town for treatment and more chance of recruitment because jobs will be more exciting.

But is that really going to help the people who depend on the NHS?

We have been so bombarded by worrying news about health care this week that I had to scrap an idea for a column centred around Elvis’ 82nd birthday on Sunday.

Instead, I am having to think about other 82-year-olds, other elderly or sick people.

What we have been told by the Success Regime is that beds would be removed from hospitals such as Maryport.

But don’t worry! There will still be plenty of care available. In fact, in this brave new world of integrated community care, life will be better than before.

Patients need no longer lie in hospital beds. They can be cared for in their own homes. Anyway, with all the new local treatments, they probably won’t need care in the first place.

I hope the latter is true because the former is an unbelievable nonsense!

Have you seen what is happening in social care (the bit of personal health care that happens in the home)?

I heard one man on TV suggest this week that the shortage of care workers and the lack of money for care means people are getting shorter and shorter visits.

He suggested that it has reached a stage, in some cases, where patients have to choose between asking the carer to take them to the toilet or to give them a meal.

This is not the third world. This is Britain – the fifth largest economy in the world.

The problem is that medical science has gone so far and we now want and expect the highest tech medical treatment we can get and that is extremely expensive.

I can see the problems but I sure as heck can’t understand the solutions.

If people are being held on trolleys in hospital corridors for hours on end because there are no beds; if a critical shortage of social carers means a 15-minute home visit is becoming the norm; if you have to wait more than four hours in A&E then what is the answer?

The answer is surely not to take away beds from cottage hospitals which can be used to free beds in the acute hospitals, ensure care for those who can’t get it at home.

Maryport Cottage Hospital and the West Cumberland’s Maternity Unit, to name just two, are not going to make a huge difference to the NHS crisis nationally.

But cutting services there to save a small fraction of the national debt will make a huge difference locally.

Big isn’t always better. Taking from the smaller hospitals to add to the big is not going to work when the big are already unable to cope.

Here’s a novel thought: instead of cutting down on the services that help, what about pruning some of the hundreds of managerial branches?