Having just spent a day at St George's Hospital with my father I felt I needed to write regarding the ridiculous plans to close the 'Maternity' and 'Accident and Emergency departments at St Helier.

Firstly it took 30 mins to get to St George's by car in the middle of the day from Streatham where my father lives. So what hope have we from Sutton!

My father is elderly and disabled so we looked for a disabled bay at first. However as usual when visiting St Georges for both my mother and father's many visits their was none vacant. This meant dropping off my father on his own to wait inside the main entrance whilst I went to the car park.

The car park is totally inadequate for the ammount of cars trying to park and all rows had parked cars on the ends blocking the way of travel. I spent 20 mins in here driving around and around until at last I secured a spot before anyone else, as someone was about to leave.

When I arrived at the main entrance my father was nowhere to be seen as he had waited so long for me that he needed the toilet and had gone off to find one.

The whole experience was depressing and cost me £5 for the pleaseure.
How on earth will people be able to park when St Helier has lost it's 'Maternity' and 'Accident and Emergency' departments.

Of course their is very expensive parking on the street around the hospital and I am sure residents will love us filling up their streets whilst visiting St Helier, but as you can have no idea how long you will wait once in the hospital for your appointment pre-paying is not really an option.

I cannot give enough praise to St Heliers Maternity unit for the wonderful experience my daughter had when her daughter was born in one of the birthing rooms last May. The staff were wonderful, caring and totally committed. What a loss this unit will be to the community and good luck to anyone needing to park at St Georges in the future.

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