SAVE OUR HOSPITALS: AUDIO

I also gave a report to the Save our Hospitals campaign who met to discuss the next phase of the campaign to save our local NHS services.

The group is monitoring the effect of the Hammersmith and Central Middlesex A&E closures earlier this month to see if the remaining A&Es can cope. It gives me no pleasure to say that one hospital – Northwick Park in Harrow – is already in crisis only two weeks after Central Mid shut its doors.

The group is also campaigning for proper public consultation on the new plans to redevelop Charing Cross; while the new administration at the Council is committed to stop any development from being allowed on the site, it is vitally important that residents are given more of a voice on this issue.

I raise these issues at Imperial Healthcare Trust’s AGM last Wednesday, asking their Chief Exec to guarantee that there will be no further closure of services at Charing Cross until alternative provision was in place to prevent another Northwick Park fiasco. Imperial plan to sell land worth £270m – half the Charing Cross and St Mary’s sites – and borrow over £400m despite already running a deficit. And yet they will end up with a fraction of the services at Charing Cross they have now. Standard Health Correspondent Ross Lydall attended the AGM and wrote his thoughts on the meeting here.