Second ‘day of action’ for Whittington Hospital?

Published: 18 March 2010
by TOM FOOT

PLANS to stage a second “day of action” in support of the Whittington Hospital will be discussed at a public meeting on Monday night.

The Defend Whittington Hospital Coalition (DWHC) are considering whether to follow-up on last month’s mass march with a series of high-profile events across Camden and Islington.

They have begun printing more window posters, leaflets and special Whittington cat badges are in the pipeline.

Shirley Franklin, co-chairwoman of the DWHC, said: “We are talking about lots of ­little events all over the place, and perhaps a rally or meeting outside the Whittington.”

She added: “We would like all the health workers’ unions to agree to meet and work to­gether – that’s our hope.”

Representatives from the DWHC, British Medical Association doctors union, Islington MP Jeremy Corbyn and other NHS campaigners will speak at the public meeting in the Whittington Community Centre from 7pm.

The Coalition, formed after proposals to shut the Whittington’s A&E department were leaked in November, has been boosted by the intervention of Health Minister Mike O’Brien.

He condemned the proposals in the House of Commons last week warning NHS officials he had “serious concerns” over the lack of evidence behind the plans.

It is believed Labour minister David Lammy, who spoke at the protest rally in support of the Whittington, may have had a word in his Cabinet colleague’s ear.

Despite this, highly paid bureaucrats working for the North Central London sector NHS trust – the unelected body implementing the changes – are refusing the back down.

They are working towards a blueprint where hospitals are ripped apart and ser­vices scattered across the borough into privately run health centres or existing doctors’ surgeries.

Despite repeated requests, NCL refuse to produce any of the “clinical evidence” they claim proves at least 40 per cent of patients admitted through A&E can be “more effectively” treated in these “lower-cost settings”.

Their figures have since been questioned by the Department of Health and in an independent report from the ­Primary Care Foundation.

The Whittington’s award-winning maternity unit is also under threat.

Ms Franklin said: “People often ask me, how many people have joined up to this campaign. It is more a question of who has not signed up. 

“What I want to know is why, when so many people are against it, and the Health Minister says he doesn’t want it to happen, they keep saying they still want to close it?”

The public meeting is in the Whittington Community Centre in Yerbury Road from 7pm.