No place for party politics in campaign to save Whittington A&E

Published: 19 March 2010

• I’M really disappointed to see my local councillor, Greg Foxsmith, saying that the cross-party campaign to save Whittington Hospital should become a battleground for crude party politics (Letters, March 12).

Until now I have been impressed by how people from all parties and none have worked together and how Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats have managed to focus on saving the hospital rather than party political point-scoring.

But now Cllr Foxsmith thinks his Liberal Democrat party will benefit if it’s “time to be party political” about the Whittington. I think that’s a shame and I’m just disappointed that he wants to score points by blaming Jeremy Corbyn for threats to our hospital.
David Shaw
Cheverton Road, N19

• SAVING the A&E, and therefore the Whittington Hospital, is the most important issue faced by practically everyone in our community. There are some who are turning their focus away from this aim and having a go at Labour activists, councillors and MPs who are all 100 per cent behind the Save the Whittington campaign.

These Labour people live locally, send children to local schools, shop and socialise locally and, should the worst happen, would be looked after in a local A&E. They are prepared to stand up and fight for Whittington Hospital.

In fact, Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn started the campaign and set up and chaired the first public meeting at Archway. It was at that meeting that the Save the Whittington Coalition was born. Jeremy arranged  a second meeting, and he and Labour Party members joined the coalition’s brilliant march. 

The local Labour Party has gathered almost 5,000 signatures on petitions. Labour MPs have challenged health ministers directly and raised the issues surrounding  Whittington Hospital on the floor of parliament.

You can be a local activist and challenge the rest of the party; differences of opinion are great and debate should be welcomed. Local Lib Dems will,  hopefully, challenge their national party, which has plans (in their words) to emulate Thatcher with 100 per cent spending cuts. The Whittington would not be able to withstand those sorts of savage cuts. The Whittington will be saved by the pressure all in our community – including Labour activists, councillors and MPs – are putting on NHS bureaucrats.
Cllr Janet Burgess
Labour, Junction ward

• IT is disappointing to see the Labour Party in Islington being attacked again about the Whittington Hospital with a complete disregard for the facts. 

When I spoke at the Whittington rally on February 27 as president of Islington Trades Union Council, I said we needed a united campaign to save the hospital. It is, of course, incumbent on our two Islington Labour MPs, Jeremy Corbyn and Emily Thornberry, to take up the argument in parliament, and that is exactly what they are doing.

The Healthcare for London report said that hospitals such as the Whittington should keep services such as A&E and maternity units. This is NHS policy, so I have written to Rachel Tyndall, chief executive of NHS Islington, insisting that she works to that policy in relation to the Whittington.  

Can I urge others to write to Islington NHS with the unity of purpose intended by the Defend the Whittington Hospital Coalition to which Islington North Labour Party is affiliated.
Gary Heather
Labour candidate, St George’s Ward

• SINCE the proposals to close Whittington Hospital’s accident and emergency department were leaked last year there has been overwhelming and united opposition to them from across the community. 

Now it seems that even the government thinks it’s a bad idea. At a debate on the NHS in parliament on March 9 health minister Mike O’Brien said: “At the moment I am not convinced of the need for Whittington A&E to close. Those discussing these things need to know that. I have serious concerns about it and I would want to see a serious clinical case made for saying that the £32million that the government have decided to invest in the Whittington should be overridden. 

“I do not see any justification for closure of the A&E at this time, and I would want to hear the case for closing it during the next parliament. I have seen no such case.”

In the light of that statement, we call on NHS executives to abandon immediately their proposals. Even the medical community is outraged by the proposals to close not only the A&E department but maternity and paediatrics as well. They too recognise that to continue with these plans will rip the heart out of our local hospital, and that there is no medical evidence that setting up polyclinics will achieve anything other than the privatisation of our much-loved health service.
Zozi Goodman
Joint chair, Defend the Whittington Hospital Coalition

• THE last Islington NHS board meeting voted in principle for “the vision of polysystems services in Islington”. This unelected board has not yet decided whether there should be two or three “polysystems”, and costings will only be discussed at its meeting on March 25.

In times of government cuts, they will put their proposed Urgent Care Centre (work hours only) out to tender by private firms as well as groupings of local GPs.

But will this be safe for patients? The board put diabetic retinopathy screening out to private firms. But it has now had to suspend this service for screening diabetic eyesight due to “serious and significant concerns about aspects of the service, including commissioning”. 

I hope GPs as well as everyone else will back the campaign against forcing a privatised Urgent Care Centre on us instead of the excellent care we get from GPs and Whittington A&E. 

Lord Darzi’s plan is about cost-cutting and privatisation not about good care for patients – despite its alluring phrases about “improving” healthcare.
Jan Pollock
Address supplied

• AS anger mounts in Islington over the government’s threat to the Whittington, Conservatives promise a halt to the reorganisation that has placed its future in doubt. 

Following the Opposition-led debate in parliament over threats to London’s NHS, Conservatives have promised to stop the secret shake-up which is putting London hospital services at risk. The review is a top-down process, not one based on the choices of patients and the referral decisions of GPs. 

The people best placed to design more effective local services  are GPs and local authorities. But they have been largely shut out of this process. It is not acceptable for busy emergency departments, outpatient clinics or maternity units to be told they will have to shut while they are still seeing patients and referrals are being made to them. 

If David Cameron wins the election, a Conservative government will halt the current NHS London top-down process. We will stop the planned closure of A&E or maternity units and make decisions on their future subject to the choice of patients and their GPs. We will give real commissioning responsibilities to local GP groups. Together with the boroughs, we will give them power to commission the local services needed.
Antonia Cox
Conservative parliamentary spokesman,
Islington South and Finsbury