MPs and council leader will lobby for protection of services at St Helier

12:40pm Wednesday 12th December 2012 in News By Mike Pyle

MPs and council leader to challenge minister on St Helier plans MPs and council leader to challenge minister on St Helier plans

MPs and the council leader are  joining forces to press a health minister into intervening to stop services leaving St Helier Hospital.

Cost-saving NHS review Better Service Better Value recommended St Helier Hospital should lose its accident and emergency department, maternity unit and children's unit. It would mean people in Sutton having to travel to St George's in Tooting for frontline services.

But MPs Tom Brake and Paul Burstow together with Sutton Council leader Ruth Dombey are meeting MP Anna Soubry, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health, in January to press for her to look at the review's suggestions which they say are flawed.

Mr Brake said: "The Minister must listen to the concerns of local residents who want services at St Helier protected. The BSBV review is flawed and is based upon community health services that don’t exist."

Mr Burstow added: "It’s time the chaos caused by local NHS bosses coming up with an unrealistic and undeliverable plan comes to an end. That’s why we’re asking the Minister to take a long hard look at these proposals before it’s too late."

The duo, together with Coun Dombey who called BSBV's recommendations ridiculous, will urge Ms Soubry to release funding to further develop St Helier Hospital when they meet on January 10.

Comments(13)

David7 says...
1:23pm Wed 12 Dec 12

Nice to see St Helier Hospital has gone upmarket and moved to Cheam.

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tjames says...
2:48pm Wed 12 Dec 12

there is a site available at north cheam

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Michael Pantlin says...
2:49pm Wed 12 Dec 12

David7 wrote:
Nice to see St Helier Hospital has gone upmarket and moved to Cheam.
Except in the eyes of Royal Mail Cheam no longer exists having been subsumed by Sutton postal district. So the hospital has been moved to an area that no longer exists - not looking good then?

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tjames says...
2:59pm Wed 12 Dec 12

Cheam Village no longer exists?

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Michael Pantlin says...
5:10pm Wed 12 Dec 12

tjames wrote:
Cheam Village no longer exists?
Last SG information I can trace on this is at http://www.suttongua
rdian.co.uk/news/441
9764.Cheam_within_re
ach_of_its_own_posta
l_identity/

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Michael Pantlin says...
5:17pm Wed 12 Dec 12

The expensive and long running farce conducted by politicians, civil servants and NHS Bosses should be scrutinsed in depth by the MPs Public Accounts Committee.
Anyone discovered to have bungled and wasted public money should be named and shamed and fired.
Terms of reference should reveal at last why so many CEOs left within such a short period and with so much secrecy.
Only then is there any possibility of restoring public confidence.

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LiberalsOut says...
10:14am Thu 13 Dec 12

Pity Mr Burstow did not raise his concerns when he was a Minister???
Maybe the "whiff" of power was more important

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tjames says...
1:39pm Thu 13 Dec 12

agreed liberals out

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Michael Pantlin says...
11:44am Fri 14 Dec 12

LiberalsOut wrote:
Pity Mr Burstow did not raise his concerns when he was a Minister???
Maybe the "whiff" of power was more important
Mr. Burstow told the press he was free to fight for St. Helier after he was ousted as Care Minister saying he was "unshackled" but failed to tell us when he was appointed that he was shackled against fighting the cause.

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Michael Pantlin says...
11:51am Fri 14 Dec 12

Yesterday I had to attend Epsom Hospital for a prostrate biopsy although I live near St. Helier Hospital - this is the Better Care Closer to Home in action I suppose :)). Door to door from home to Epsom in a taxi from calling a cab took one hour. Coming home the traffic was hardly moving so I chose the bus to avoid the meter ticking away and not moving. From walking out the entrance to arriving home took 2 hours via 408 to Epsom Clock Tower, 470 to Sutton Station and S1 to Carshalton. These are not BSBV massaged extra travel timings they are patient reality timings yesterday afternoon. I never thought I was going to get away from the Clock Tower. The traffic at the lights on the triple lane one way was moving like treacle. Not pleasant when you are standing waiting and still bleeding from the op. The story I'm sure would be much the same to and from Tooting. We need our local District General Hospital at St. Helier uncut.

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tjames says...
12:04pm Fri 14 Dec 12

you should have booked dial a ride

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kazza76 says...
8:30pm Sun 16 Dec 12

sorry i cannot see where in this article it says the hospital is moving to cheam!!! perhaps you moaning minnies should get off your backsides and come and support the people like myself who are fighting to save the hospital instead of running down the mps all the time, as part of the team of people who organised the save st helier funday and campaign I can tell you first hand that both the local mps from sutton and merton and also local councillors and councillor ruth dombey have been working there backsides off to try and save this hospital. so stop bloody moaning and start helping!!!

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tjames says...
2:44am Mon 17 Dec 12

i doubt it

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