New hospital chief would have us pay for treatment

Published: 15 April, 2011

• IT is horrifying to read that Dr Yi Mien Koh, the new chief executive at Whittington Hospital (or should we already call it Whittington Health?) is planning for the hospital to become a foundation trust, prior to the implementation of the Health and Social Care Bill, and to ask patients to pay for low-priority treatments (New hospital chief: you may have to pay, April 8). 

We successfully fought to save the accident and emergency department at the Whittington, and hence to maintain the standing and care provided by our local hospital. Now, the hospital is being effectively privatised and we are being asked to pay for health treatments.

On top of this, there are massive threats to the NHS through the current Health and Social Care Bill, as well as cuts imposed by a government that promised not to cut health and to protect the NHS. 

The Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead is planning to axe 450 jobs in an attempt to cut £40million from its budget. This is a disgraceful state of affairs in terms of jobs and health provision in our area and is bound to have a deleterious impact on services at the Whittington, with ever-increasing waiting lists.

Devastating cuts are happening at all levels of health and social care. These are cuts that will most harm the most vulnerable.

Defend the Whittington Hospital Coalition is committed to the proper maintenance of our local NHS, with no cuts and no privatisation. That is why we will be holding a public meeting in early May, asking along, among others, MP and Shadow Minister for Health Emily Thornberry, MP Jeremy Corbyn, a consultant from the Whittington and another from the British Medical 

Association and a speaker from mental health services so we can fully understand what is happening to our NHS and how we can effectively stop its destruction. 

We will be supporting the London-wide Keep Our NHS Public twilight demonstration on May 24 or May 26.

The NHS was established in 1948 to be a free service to all – free medical treatment, including dental and eye care. This was at a post-war time of financial austerity. We should be proud of the vision of 1948 and fight to protect it.

Please help us to Keep our NHS Public, and to keep a service that meets the needs of everyone.

SHIRLEY FRANKLIN
Chair, Defend the Whittington 
Hospital Coalition
www.dwhc.org.uk

• LAST week, I lambasted Emily Thornberry’s remarks about Labour’s achievements on the NHS. To be honest, I thought I may have been a bit over the top. But no.

First, I read that breast cancer sufferers will be denied follow-up medical care at the Whittington (Post-treatment cut has left my wife feeling vulnerable, April 8). Having had a tumour on the spinal cord, I can sympathise with Mrs Collins, post-operative care for cancers is very reassuring and may well prove vital. 

While the initial operation may be successful, one always worries that it could spring up again. 

If this area of care, which used to be considered essential, is now to be “downgraded” and abolished, what will be cut next? The answer came all too soon. 

Dr Yi Mien Koh, the Whittington’s new chief executive, tells us that “elective” treatments may be privatised and only carried out on a personal fee basis. Dr Koh told us how important it was to turn the Whittington into an independent foundation hospital. This will allow the hospital to increase its private treatments. 

How long will it be before the range of “elective” treatments is redefined and widened? Hip and knee replacements could soon be seen as elective. What about plastic surgery following a scarring accident? How about treating those who smoke, drink or put on weight? Maternity care? They could all be seen as elective? Once this particular Pandora’s Box is opened, where do you draw the line? 

Dr Koh reassuringly tells us the NHS is “focusing on its core business, caring for people who are sick”. Well, this is news, isn’t it? The Whittington is what used to be called a hospital. By definition, its job is to look after the sick. That’s what hospitals do. 

The newly-branded Whittington Health may see its future differently when it throws off the shackles of troublesome NHS control. I say: keep Whittington Hospital in public hands, run by the community for the community.

RICHARD ROSSER
Highbury New Park, N5