A&E TO BE SAVED - Health Minister Andrew Lansley calls halt to NHS "reconfiguration plans"

Published: 20 May 2010
by TOM FOOT

THE new Health Secretary Andrew Lansley last night (Wednesday) confirmed he will stick to his promise to save the Whittington Hospital.

He said he was calling a halt to NHS London’s “reconfiguration plans” which had placed the accident and emergency department and the maternity unit at the Highgate hospital under threat.

It confirms the New Journal’s front-page exclusive earlier this month that the danger has passed with health spokespeople from all of the main political parties agreed that these services must be kept running.

The doubters who couldn’t believe what we were reporting after a hard-fought campaign will be told by Mr Lansley this week that he sees “no sense” in agreeing to the closure plans.

He first made the pledge to intervene in the wake of a 5,000 protest march, contacting the New Journal by telephone in March to publicly say he was opposed to closing the A&E.

Mr Lansley spoke at a demonstration outside the Highgate hospital one week before the general election, reiterating that “the Whittington A&E department would be saved”.

That statement, which followed a similar commitment from then Labour health secretary Andy Burnham and which was echoed by Lib Dem health spokesman Norman Lamb, was recorded in a New Journal film about the inspirational people power, available on our website.

The threat to the hospital, first revealed in our sister paper the Islington Tribune in July 2008, came after former health minister Lord Darzi announced his Healthcare for London reforms.

The plan was based on an assumption that 60 per cent of hospital casualty admissions could be more effectively treated in local health centres, or “polyclinics”.

Those figures were later torn apart by clinicians, including more than 100 Whittington consultants, and now the costly project lies in tatters.

Mr Lansley said he wanted to end the top-down management of the NHS and replace it with a “devolution of responsibility to clinicians and the public” – with health workers and patient groups deciding how the health service is funded.

Last night an NHS London spokesman said: “The new Secretary of State is clear GPs must now take the lead in directing where services are provided locally.

“NHS London remains committed to improving the quality of care.”