HEALTH bosses have now confirmed that they are pushing forward with their plans to close three children’s wards in SW London including all of the services here at St Helier, warns Epsom and St Helier Unison branch.
The warning comes ahead of Saturday’s mass protest against the planned closure of St Helier Hospital’s A&E, Maternity and paediatrics departments.
Unison says: ‘NHS SW London’s Better Services Better Value (BSBV) team had delayed their children’s recommendations but have now made it clear they intend to have a single paediatric hospital in SW London based at St George’s Hospital in Tooting.
‘St Helier, Kingston and Croydon University hospitals are all set to lose their inpatient paediatric care as a result.
‘Each hospital with an A&E should have a dedicated children’s A&E open 24/7. There will be a couple of beds located in each hospital with an A&E where children can be assessed and treated before being transferred to St George’s if they need a longer stay.
‘Under the wider BSBV recommendations, St Helier Hospital is also set to lose its A&E, therefore children would have to be admitted to A&Es at other hospitals in SW London and there would be no children’s services whatsoever on this site.
‘Why are the NHS bureaucrats proposing this? Money. It’s all part of the BSBV drive to slash £370 million, a quarter of the total, from our budgets.
‘BSBV have tried to argue that they are centralising in the interests of safety. Unison says that not only is this a totally bogus argument, not supported by a single shred of evidence, but is also insulting and demeaning to the dedicated and experienced staff team here at Queen Mary’s.’
(Queen Mary’s Hospital for Children is the Epsom and St Helier Trust’s dedicated children’s hospital on the St Helier site.)
Unison continues: ‘When the old hospital was closed back in 1993 we were given an explicit assurance that the service would be re-located and retained on the St Helier site as a distinctive and stand-alone unit with its own identity.
‘Unison is looking at whether that pledge, now on the verge of being ripped up, has any legal standing.
‘We know that local people are opposed to these plans.
‘They have supported Queen Mary’s for years and no one has even mentioned the many thousands of pounds that have been raised by the public for equipment and resources for our children’s unit.
‘Unison is committed to fighting the closure of Queen Mary’s as a key part of the broader campaign to stop the BSBV destruction of St Helier.
‘The proposals will go in front of the joint boards of SW London PCTs in September for approval.
‘Public consultation on the closures is due to start on September 17. We have to mobilise now and we will keep you informed of developments on the campaign.’
The Summer bulletin of Unison Epsom & St Helier Branch says: ‘Be in no doubt, this decision is about cash-led cuts.
‘This government has demanded that £370 million has to be axed from health budgets in South West London – 24 per cent of the current acute budget – and it is those cuts, not clinical need or the safety of the public, that have driven the “Better Services Better Value” process that culminated in the assault on St Helier.’
The bulletin adds: ‘There is still everything to fight for. If the front-line services at St Helier are allowed to close it will mean tortuous journeys through the busy streets of South London for nearly a hundred thousand people seeking emergency and maternity care.
‘This fight really is a matter of life or death.’
Kevin O’Brien, Epsom/St Helier Unison Branch Secretary says: ‘The fight is on!
‘I’m not just talking about the fight to save the core services at St Helier, I am talking about the fight to stop Epsom being swallowed up and spat out in its shotgun merger, and, yes, I am talking about the fight to save NHS services right across the South West London area.
‘At this point in time there is nothing that those who seek the destruction of services in the name of quick cash savings would like more than to have individual hospitals slugging it out in a dog-eat-dog battle for survival where the winner takes it all.
‘That is why they constructed the decision-making process in the way that they did – a gladiatorial contest where thumbs up or a thumbs down from the gallery is the difference between death or survival.
‘That is no way to run a modern, caring health service.
‘WE NEED ALL OUR HOSPITALS
‘Let me make this clear, South West London cannot afford to lose any of its current hospital capacity. . .
‘Here’s the fact that Better Services Better Value has chosen in its wisdom to ignore – ALL of our hospitals are busy ALL of the time. . .
‘The people of Wandsworth, Kingston and Croydon must understand that this isn’t just an issue about St Helier, it’s about £370 million of cuts, a quarter of the total health budget in South West London, being bulldozed through with horrific consequences for everyone.
‘OUR FIGHT IS YOUR FIGHT
‘So we are meeting with union colleagues at the other hospitals, we are meeting with trade unionists and trades councils across the surrounding area, and we are sending out the message loud and clear that OUR FIGHT IS YOUR FIGHT.’
l In West London, the staff side committee has issued a leaflet opposing the closure of Ealing Hospital’s A&E.
The leaflet says: ‘The Coalition government’s Health and Social Care Act recently became law and they want to make NHS savings totaling £20 billion.
‘The NHS North West London business case and consultation: “Shaping a Healthier Future” proposes the downgrading of four out of nine local hospitals.
‘Under its preferred option (option A) the Accident and Emergency departments at Ealing, Central Middlesex, Hammersmith and Charing Cross Hospitals would all close, leaving three of the region’s eight boroughs (a population of at least 700,000!) without an A&E.
‘Other departments including intensive care, emergency surgery, paediatrics and maternity units at some of those hospitals would also close.
‘Ealing and Charing Cross hospitals, which would be most greatly affected under option A, would lose the following services: 24/7 Accident and Emergency, emergency surgery, non-elective medicine, non-elective surgery, complex elective medicine, complex elective surgery, intensive care, inpatient paediatrics (not currently at Charing Cross), obstetrics and maternity unit (not currently at Charing Cross), hyper acute stroke unit (not currently at Ealing).
‘Also under option A, Central Middlesex Hospital would lose: non-elective medicine, non-elective surgery, complex elective surgery, intensive care, the A&E, which has already closed, would not be reinstated.
‘Hammersmith Hospital (including Queen Charlotte and Chelsea Hospital) would become a specialist hospital its current limited 24/7 A&E department would be lost, its intensive care would become a specialist unit, its complex elective medicine become a specialist only unit.
‘Each of the hospitals would retain: an urgent care centre, helping those with less serious, non-life threatening illnesses or injuries, outpatients and diagnostics.
‘Ealing Hospital is set to lose its A&E, maternity unit and children’s services if North West London’s preferred option is carried out.
‘This will mean there will be major job losses.
‘With more than 100,000 people each year being admitted to Ealing A&E, and surrounding acute services stretched beyond their capacity, health campaigners claim this will have a catastrophic effect on patients in the Borough.
‘Two other local A&E units are also set to close, these will most likely be those at Hammersmith and Charing Cross, as Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust struggles to pay off its £40m debt.
‘The irony is that Ealing is one of the very few financially viable trusts, yet services at the hospital will be destroyed by these plans, which if approved would see the Ealing Hospital building demolished, land sold for property development and a much smaller polyclinic built to accommodate an urgent care centre, outpatient department and diagnostic services.
‘Staff Side with other campaigning groups will fight against these proposals. We have a campaign group which includes the local councillors, MPs, Dr Onkhar Sahota, Ealing SOS, community leaders and Union representatives from other organisations. We are also working with other Trusts who are under threat of losing A&E.
‘The NHS is carrying out a formal consultation on the proposals. The more people who object to the proposals, the more likely it is that NHS managers will reconsider what is planned.
‘To support the campaign against the proposals please get involved by: Signing our petition and get your family and friends living in the borough to also sign; completing the NHS Consultation; contacting the NHS consultation team; telling as many people as possible about what’s proposed and how they can join the campaign.
‘Join us for a rally and protest march on Saturday 15 September 2012 from Southall Park to Ealing Common, starting at 11am.
