A founding member of Keep Our St Helier Hospital (KOSHH) has accused MP Tom Brake of trying to “score political points” by tabling a petition to keep services at the hospital open just days before the junior doctor strike.

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The Carshalton and Wallington MP presented a 25,000 strong petition to the chairman of Sutton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Brendan Hudson to keep St Helier’s accident and emergency (A&E), maternity and children’s services open.

KOSHH member Dave Ash said the petition is “questionable at the very least” because it has previously been addressed to various bodies and the signatures might have carried over.

He added: “What I think is very cynical about this is that Tom Brake, along with his Liberal Democrat colleagues, supported the very Act of Parliament that puts the NHS in danger – the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

“The timing to choose to hand in this petition, which has been rumbling on for many years and has been presented in the past, days before the junior doctors process is also cynical.

“I think he is trying to use that to score political points.

“I think he needs to examine his conscience.”

Mr Brake did not know if signatures from previous petitions had carried over to the new one.

He said: “Over the years different organisations have been conducting reviews into what the local hospital set up should be.

“The fact is that all of the people who signed the petition have been calling for the A&E and maternity at St Helier to be maintained, that has always been the key focus of the petition.

“I don’t understand why Mr Ash is making a link to the junior doctors dispute, as far as I am concerned they are two separate issues.”

The future of Epsom and St Helier NHS trust has been in doubt for the past five years.

Plans to split the two hospitals, with Epsom being linked with Ashford and St Peter’s Hospital and St Helier linking with St George’s were shelved, only for the Better Service Better Value review to be launched in 2012.

This recommended the closure of the two hospitals’ A&E and maternity department.

The review was eventually abolished in 2013 after failing to secure support from Surrey Downs Clinical Commissioning Group but a fresh review, South West London Collaborative Commissioning, was launched the following year to once again bring healthcare across the region under the spotlight.

There was further confusion when it emerged there were discussions last year to close both sites to create a “super hospital” while in October last year a £219m redevelopment fund promised for the hospital was scrapped, despite Chancellor George Osborne standing by the fund only months earlier.

Throughout this period Mr Brake has vocally called for St Helier’s services to be protected, but consistently been accused of not doing enough to safe guard the hospital’s future.

Last year, in the build up to the general election, where he retained his seat, he was accused of using his petition to save the hospital as a means to gather voter details.

Election rival Matthew Maxwell-Scott called on Mr Brake to submit his petition before the vote, even launching his own petition demanding the Liberal Democrat hand in the document.

Responding to the petition a spokesman for NHS Sutton CCG said: “It is far too early to say what changes might arise to services locally.”