Hollywood actor Patrick Stewart has joined the fight to save the A&E unit at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.
The Mirfield-born actor sent out a tweet to his two million followers from Los Angeles making it quite clear that in his opinion it would be a very poor decision to shut the casualty department.
He tweeted: “ Huddersfield Royal Infirmary is losing its A&E Dept. This is a grave mistake. ”
And in the tweet the Star Trek and X-Men actor added a link to the main online petition against the move involving Huddersfield Royal Infirmary .
READ MORE:HRI A&E: Meet the health chiefs who decide the future of your hospital
READ MORE:Hands off HRI: Colne Valley residents leading the way in official petition
And he has a simple method to make things better.
He said: “I wish that politicians would spend more time watching Star Trek: The Next Generation because unlike my predecessor Captain James T Kirk Jean-Luc Picard believed first and foremost in negotiation. He was a diplomat before he was a warrior. Talk, talk, talk and keep talking. That’s a great message for the world.”
He joins a list of celebrities who have backed the Hands Off Huddersfield A&E campaign including Game of Thrones star Lena Headey, comedian Sarah Millican and singer-turned-presenter Peter Andre.
READ MORE:HRI A&E: Hospital shake-up plan consultation pencilled for February 8
The campaign also received retweets from fashion guru Gok Wan, actor John Barrowman, pantomime dame Christopher Biggins, comedian Jason Manford, EastEnders actor Danny Dyer and DJ Danny Rampling.
Kaiser Chiefs singer Ricky Wilson has urged people to sign the petition.
Ricky tweeted: “They’re not asking for money, just a signature.”
