NHS London has allocated £115 million to organise the closure of A&E and maternity services at Chase Farm Hospital, Enfield.
Emergencies are to be directed to Barnet Hospital and North Middlesex in Edmonton.
The Enfield A&E is to be replaced by an urgent care centre for minor injuries, open just 12 hours a day, for which £12m has been allocated.
Maternity and A&E services at Barnet Hospital are to be expanded and £23m has been allocated for new wards and 200 extra parking spaces.
£80m has been earmarked to refurbish North Middlesex Hospital’s 1970s tower block and for the creation of a new women and children’s centre.
Building work is expected to be completed in the spring of 2014.
There are currently plans to merge Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust with the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead.
The plan to close Chase Farm is part of a government drive to smash the District General Hospital model nationally and then privatise the remnants of the NHS.
The West London Council of Action’s mass picket of Ealing Hospital yesterday morning was a great success.
The Council of Action has called the picket for every Friday morning 7.30am-9am to campaign against the threatened closure of the hospital and to prepare to occupy to keep it open.
Southall resident Farah Afzal Kaka said: ‘The time is getting nearer and I am concerned. We have to take action before they close it. People’s lives are affected. Ealing Hospital is very local and convenient. We have to occupy. It’s our health at stake.’
Kally, an admin worker at Ealing Hospital, said: ‘We have to save our hospital for the residents, for the elderly, for the whole community.
‘They are cutting hospital transport, assessing people and saying they don’t qualify. There are not enough ambulances.
‘We haven’t had a pay rise for the past six years. They are out to cut and close.
‘If this carries on there will be blood on people’s hands.’
Balbir Dhillon, a Heathrow Airport worker, said: ‘This hospital is vital to the local community and if it was occupied, airport workers would back it.’
Rosy Botti, a nurse in the closure-threatened Maternity Department and a Unite member, said: ‘This hospital provides a good service. If it closed people would have to go to Northwick Park, which is not accessible.
‘There is a very high demand in the maternity unit and a high quality of service. They haven’t told us officially when they plan to close it. They must be stopped.’
Alex Alexander, an Ealing resident, said: ‘I’m here to defend the NHS, to stop the hospital closing and to make a stand.
‘We should occupy this hospital. Aside from doing petitions, which aren’t going to work, what else can you do?
‘The only thing you can do, with nobody listening, is occupy.’
At the end of the picket, Malkiat Bilku, a Unison member, said: ‘It was very successful this morning. Lots of people supported us. They agree with us that this hospital must be kept open by any means necessary.
‘We will occupy. The A&E must be saved and the maternity and paediatrics as well. They must all be kept open.’
• London Fire Commissioner Ron Dobson yesterday announced plans to close 12 fire stations in London with the loss of 520 jobs, to save £45m over the next two years. The stations include Belsize in Camden, Bow in Tower Hamlets, and Westminster in central London.
