Just don’t have your heart attack during a rush-hour

• CLOSING the Whittington A and E is madness. In the past fortnight we have had to visit morning outpatient clinics at the Royal Free and the Whittington. Leaving home in Hornsey at 8am in a minicab, the average journey time to the Whittington was 16 minutes; to the Royal Free it was 40 minutes. 
Twice we witnessed emergency ambulances on blues-and-twos struggling to get through traffic in Gordon House Road and Highgate Road on their way to the Royal Free. On arrival, clinics at both sites were heaving with patients; where would the Whittington clinic patients go if there was to be a closure?
A and E departments are not to be tampered with; too much is at stake and it is unbelievable that closure is being contemplated. Anyone who knows this area is fully aware of the rush-hour congestion problems, especially on most of the narrow roads that feed the Royal Free Hospital. 
The Whittington meets the needs of its community, so support it.
DAVID COLLINS
Tollington Park, N4

• MOST Islington residents, plus others from south Haringey, are horrified by a proposal to close Whittington Hospital’s A and E. Those needing emergency treatment would have to attend other hospitals farther away, although according to Frank Dobson, MP for St Pancras and Holborn, these are already overfilled. Longer journeys would be inconvenient for everyone, particularly the old and frail, the majority of a hospital’s inpatient intake. Ambulance journeys too would take longer and cost more.
When Bart’s Hospital’s A and E closed some years ago, it was remarked that about a third of hospital patients are admitted via A and E. So A and E closures facilitate downgrading the hospital to “local hospital” status, with other reduced services.
It is weird that, after allowing the Whittington to spend about £30million (borrowed through a private finance initiative) only a few years ago to modernise and expand magnificently, its downgrading should now be envisaged. That expenditure is certainly a major cause of its present financial predicament, leading to the proposed downgrading or closure. Odd too that its amalgamation with the debt-ridden Royal Free is being considered; what is the advantage of combining two smaller debts into one larger one – except by reducing the total of both hospitals’ shared services?
It appears the proposals are based on financial considerations only. The all-important question of patients’ needs seems totally missing from a consultation agenda.
North Islington MP Jeremy Corbyn deserves gratitude for raising objections to the Whittington’s possible closure in Parliament, where they were supported by more than a score of MPs.
Locally, too, they are supported by MP Emily Thornberry, for south Islington, and by Islington Council.
Meanwhile Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, suspects the budget-cutting proposals are “all mixed up with Lord Darzi’s health reforms: cutting hospital services and moving them into super-sized surgeries” in community settings.
But there is no evidence that these are being funded, while the modernisation of the popular Finsbury Health Centre is being threatened on financial grounds. How unfortunate that Lord Darzi introduced his widely disliked design for NHS development instead of sticking to his expertise in knee surgery.    
We are disturbed to learn that a group called Participate has been called in by the NHS to consult on the Whittington issue, but excludes members of the campaign group Keep our NHS Public. “Participants” are likely to agree with their originator, especially if paid £75 (as is rumoured) while excluding opponents. How democratic is all this?
I have twice this year used the Whittington’s A and E (once for a fractured femur and once for a severe allergic attack). I therefore write as a grateful Whittington patient while also representing Islington Pensioners’ Forum.
ANGELA SINCLAIR
Islington Pensioners’ Forum

• ISLINGTON Unison is most concerned about the NHS openly discussing the idea of closing the A and E department at the Whittington. We completely endorse the Save the Whittington campaign launched by Councillor Catherine West and the Labour group on Islington Council.
We are totally against the idea of closing any part of the hospital. It is our view that there must be a mass campaign against any closure. If the A and E closes maternity and other services will follow shortly after.
I have personal experience of the maternity department at the Whittington as both my sons were born there. Danny, my oldest, owes his life to the Whittington.
These services all need expanding not contracting. They need more resourcing not less. We need to get the so-called “market” out of the NHS. The private sector has shown, with the failure of a banking system based on making profits out of selling people’s collective debts, that it is a failure.
You can sign the online petition at www.savethewhittington.org.uk
MIKE CALVERT
Deputy branch secretary, Islington Unison