We the undersigned believe that the removal of Accident & Emergency and Maternity services from Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup will lead to an unacceptable degradation of NHS services for local residents.
It is our view that as all of the options presented in the "A picture of health" consultation on reorganising NHS services in Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich and Lewisham include the removal of these vital services, that there has been no proper consultation with local residents on the future of their NHS services.
We strongly recommend that you return the "A Picture of Health" consultation form, but only answer Part 4, placing an X in the box marked none of these options. In the comments box state "see enclosed letter". A draft letter is below. Send the form and letter to:
FREEPOST RRSL-BSTX-AKYS
A picture of health
Centre for Health Management
Tanaka Business School
Imperial College
London
SW7 2AZ
Please also send a copy to:
Liberal Democrats
FREEPOST
7 Station Road
Orpington
BR6 0UB
Neither of these letters requires a stamp, but using a stamp on the copy to the Liberal Democrats will save us money to help our campaign against the plans.
Copies of the consultation document and questionairre can be downloaded from: http://www.apictureofhealth.nhs.uk/documents/category.aspx?category_id=14
Dear sir or madam,
We note that in "A Picture of Health" all of the options presented involve the closure of Accident & Emergency and Maternity services at Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup.
The impact of this will be to massively downgrade services for those in the catchment area of the hospital. Losing these services will not only heavily impact on care for local people at Queen Mary's Sidcup, but will also place heavy burdens on services at the other hospitals in the area, in particular the PRUH in Bromley and the QE2 in Woolwich. Impacting on patient care at those hospitals.
When the PRUH and QE2 PFI hospitals were constructed we were promised that they would be "centres of excellence", however under the financial burden of their PFI contracts services have already been cut back.
The plans for Queen Mary's are not being made due to clinical need, but due to the £400,000 overspend in local NHS services caused by the two PFI hospitals.
We demand the preservation of A&E and Maternity facilities at Queen Mary's and for the NHS to review the financing of services in South East London to ensure these services continue.
Yours faithfully,
