Man speaks out over St Helier A&E (From Sutton Guardian)

David I know you are correct. Specialists have impressed on me that time is of the essence in treating this condition. "Leave it too late and it'll be too late" I was told. I have been admitted 35 times since 2003 as an emergency with neutropenic sepsis and each time it's taken one or two weeks of 24/7 IV care. This is the Coalition parties' way of dealing with their worry that people are living longer with more serious conditions. Let them die waiting for an ambulance, for a bed or stuck in gridlock traffic trying to get to a distant Major A&E that's still open.

The government need to go right back to the Beveridge report and start again from there. If the ultimate aim (which I suspect) is to privatise the NHS, they need to consider how the hell it's going to work with people now living longer, plus a constant influx of immigrants. I won't bother asking Tom Brake what his plan is. He's too busy doing fun-runs and triathlons. No wonder the lib dems lost my lifelong vote about 3 years ago.

I read that so far 1,000 local people have signed Tom Brake MP's petition to save St. Helier from its advancing dismemberment. Population of Sutton is 179,000 while we are told the total number of potential patients who will be affected is 213,000. Come on people sign the petition if you value your life and those of your loved ones. Do it online during the Corrie break or at half-time during that all important football match. Unelected BSBV does not know best: you do. BSBV is designed to self-destruct after it's done it's dirty work at the behest of the ruling politicians to make it appear as though their hands are clean so you won't be able to hold it to account once your NHS is destroyed. Only a few hours ago USwitch put up a notice on Yahoo that you should consider taking out private insurance as you may find the NHS is not providing a service that's good enough for you. Spiv Dave's privateers are now crawling out of the woodwork salivating to take over the NHS. The gaping holes in the Service created by these massive closures will give them the space to get a hold and trouser the money in their stripy suits.

Michael have you a link for the petition? I have signed the guardians one, but will sign all of them if I have to! I am a Nurse at the hospital as well as a mother to a young child and am devastated at this and the more recent news that they are after our children's ward too! (And our Pathological services as well!!!!) Thanks :)

lilacgeorge wrote:
Michael have you a link for the petition? I have signed the guardians one, but will sign all of them if I have to! I am a Nurse at the hospital as well as a mother to a young child and am devastated at this and the more recent news that they are after our children's ward too! (And our Pathological services as well!!!!) Thanks :)

About
Join the campaign to save A & E and maternity services at St Helier Hospital. Sign the petition to Save Our St Helier www.tombrake.co.uk/e
n/petition which will be presented to NHS bosses by Tom Brake and Paul Burstow
Description
For more than a decade, our local community has campaigned to save St Helier Hospital when it has faced various threats. Now it is vital that our community joins together again to make sure that the Better Services Better Value team listen to local people who want to keep our A&E and maternity units at St Helier.

Please write your positive news stories about St Helier on the page below and they will be forwarded to NHS South West London to ensure that they hear our story.

me and 2 friends have started our own campaign to save the hospital services. I have an online petition http://www.petitiono
nline.co.uk/petition
/save-st-heliers-fro
ntilne-services-a-e-
and-maternity-servic
es/4426 and a facebook group 'Save st heliers maternity and A&E'. We have hundreds of paper petitions around the borough. We have had mass support. We have an article going in the wimbledon guardian and air time on radio jackie this week. We are trying to raise awareness as a lot of people don't know what these reccomended closures even are! Support the casue and tell your friend. Lets not give up without a fight.

The Government need to stop thinking about money and start thinking about peoples lives!
i bet they havent thought that the nearest hospital with a&e to carshalton is st georges so if someone is having a heartattack or anything else which is life threatening, they have to travel a 20min-half hour journey depending on the time of day to get there, by the time they do the chances of that person surviving is reduced! also the ambulance driver is going to be rushing and this could cause an extra accident just on the way to the hospital!
Closing the maternity ward is ridiculous 2, that part of the hospital its vertually new, as a parent myself, if i were to have anymore children i would not like to go anywhere else, its close to home and its what we know!
i hope this petition works.... its not all about money!!!!!!!!!

In the St. Helier & Epsom NHS staff newsletter called "Steps" which is full of photos of the placed hatchet man CEO one of his many statements tells staff there are rumours going around about the hospital's future and some of these are "malicious". A few weeks back his Director of Communications had the effrontery to castigate the Sutton Guardian for its reports about the closure of the A&E and Maternity Departments and astoundingly to demand a front page apology or otherwise face a complaint to the Press Commission. With the recent daily press releases of pathology and childrens' services earmarked for the axe with them all being theoretically shoehorned into St. George's, Tooting as a quart into a pint pot readers will form their own opinion where the malice and malevolence lies. When the CEO who has put the staff who still have jobs through disgusting anxiety and demeaning apply for your own job interviews he said as his opening press release words to the effect that he wanted to create a hospital that would be fit for his own family - one it now seems with skeletal pathology and children's capability and zero Major A&E. His previous CV made his skill and experience set appear potentially ideal for a CaMoron privatisation. The expensive looking huge banner covering the front of the hospital announcing a notional £219 expenditure which seems to be morphing into funding for SW London rather than St. Helier appears to me to be a paracetamol to supress public disquiet. Actions speak far louder than words and the public are showing signs of taking interest and taking stock of the clandestine structural cuts as they are revealed.