Tried and tested hospitals the victims in rush to set up polyclinics
• YOUR front-page article (Celebrities join fight to save A&E, February 5) and the letters over the past month show clearly how strongly people feel about the proposals to downgrade Whittington Hospital.
On BBC London News on Friday, Ruth Carnall, chief executive of NHS London, said: “The Whittington is a well-run, efficient hospital” and “there are no plans at the moment to close services at the Whittington”, which we expect as part of “the landscape for the future”.
However, the North Central London Sector consultation documents put forward seven scenarios for hospitals in this sector, in two of which there is no A&E at the Whittington and in two there are reduced hours.
When challenged about introducing a new system of polyclinics to do urgent care before evaluation is complete, she agreed that, ideally, they should run alongside existing services but there was not the money to do this. Lord Darzi pledged that no services would be closed until new services opened but was contradicted by managers from the NHS Federation.
The politicians tell us that front-line services will be spared from public sector cuts but in the plan for the next five years, The NHS 2010-2015: From Good to Great, Preventative, Person-centred and Productive, it is stated that the NHS must make efficiency savings of £15-20billion over three years from 2011 to pay for increased costs and future initiatives.
We estimate that running the market that New Labour has created in the last 10 years (following on from the purchaser-provider split introduced by the Tories in 1990), costs at least £10billion a year. Getting rid of this costly, wasteful system (which includes tendering, legal fees and overpaid staff), so that the private and corporate sector can compete with the NHS, would enable proper planning and meaningful consultation to take place.
There is no need for this headlong rush into polyclinics and urgent care centres while tried and tested hospitals are downgraded. The claim by Ms Carnall that the changes are led by doctors may be true in part but an equal if not greater number are opposed to these changes on clinical grounds.
We need a proper debate with the public not the meaningless consultation carried out in 2007 about the Darzi proposals, where there were just over 4,000 replies from a population of more than five million Londoners.
WENDY SAVAGE MBBCh(Cantab) FRCOG MSc(Public Health) Hon DSc
Co-chair of steering committee, Keep Our NHS Public
AS joint chair of the Defend the Whittington Hospital Coalition, I am pleased to write that our campaign is growing and growing.
As we petition and leaflet on the streets, in the surgeries and outside schools in Camden, Islington and Haringey everyone is aghast at the proposal to do away with our local accident and emergency.
We are planning a series of events to oppose this horrible plan.
First, we are organising a cavalcade for 11.30am outside the hospital in Magdala Avenue on Saturday.
So I urge your readers to join us.
Second, we are holding a demonstration at noon on Saturday, February 27, from outside Highbury and Islington station in Holloway Road. We are still negotiating the end point of this march, where there will be a rally. At the moment, it is likely to be outside the hospital in Magdala Avenue.
We are also organising a petition on our website – www.dwhc.org.uk – where you will find loads more information, leaflets and official documents.
If readers are as disgusted as everyone we meet, they should try to come to the demonstration to tell health bosses we don’t want them to make a casualty out of the Whittington Hospital.
SHIRLEY FRANKLIN
Joint chair, Whittington Hospital Coalition
CONGRATS to environmental charity Groundwork (and the Whittington Hospital Charitable Funds) on their wonderful designs for a new sensory garden at Whittington Hospital for patients, staff and the wider community to enjoy.
The garden (on the site of a disused tennis court) will provide shelter and a combination of sensory planting, artwork and attractive furniture designed to make it eye-catching both from the ground and from wards above.
People will be able to eat lunch at picnic tables, relax on benches or just stroll around enjoying the sights, smells and tactile sensations of plants and other features.
This, with the recent revamp of the hospital buildings, makes the Whittington a fantastic local resource we can all be proud of.
Yet without its A&E department, which currently admits two-thirds of the hospital’s patients annually, the Whittington will be decimated and the wards, and garden, will be half-empty.
To find out more about how to defend the Whittington (and the rest of our local NHS) visit www.dwhc.org.uk.
EMMA DIXON
Parliamentary candidate, Islington North, Islington Green Party