Health Minister: No case made for Whittington A&E closure
Posted by Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, at 11:00, Tue 16 March 2010:
Dear Neighbour,
The campaign to stop the A&E closure continues, and I wanted to give you the latest update on the work I have been doing to stop this madness. I held a public meeting where local residents got a chance to quiz NHS bosses directly.
Thank you to the hundreds of people who turned out to the meeting. There were some confessions and concessions were won. We were all alarmed to learn that the consultation, promised for next autumn, is going to be a sham. Worryingly, health bosses admitted that if every single person who responds is against the proposals - it will not make a difference! This is completely outrageous and wrong. I will refuse to let them go through the motions. You can read my summary of the meeting here http://bit.ly/bfM7Dd
Speaker after speaker condemned the closure. A special thanks to the many people who shared their heart-moving personal accounts of how the Whittington has made a difference to their lives. NHS bosses must go back to the drawing board and take note of the clear message from our community - the Whittington A&E must stay.
I have also taken the fight to Parliament. In a debate last Tuesday the Health Minister, Mike O'Brien, admitted there is no case to close the Whittington. We don’t think so either! There is no clinically led case. There is no evidence to support the case for closure. And we can have no confidence that a Labour government, given that they directly run the NHS and this is their proposal, would change its spots. You can see the whole exchange here http://bit.ly/a7l17v
We must keep the pressure up. My mission is to make it so difficult - politically and practically - that this insane proposal gets dropped. With the Minister and Labour clearly nervous of the political consequences of their proposals, I have secured a 90 minute debate on the future of the Whittington next Wednesday to press the Minister further. Nothing short of dropping the proposals, and a cast-iron commitment that they won’t resurface later, can make us believe that Labour won't say one thing now, but go ahead anyway after the election if they are still in power.
I hope you find the update useful. Please do get in touch if you can help collect signatures for our petition or if you have further suggestions for action.
Kind regards,
Lynne Featherstone
MP for Hornsey & Wood Green (Lib Dem) (020) 8340 5459
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