EMERGENCY. EMERGENCY.
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED, URGENTLY

Online Meeting (hosted by LB Merton), South West London Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee
Wednesday 29 July 2020 7:00 pm
The fate of our hospitals could be decided at this meeting at 7pm on Wednesday the 29th of July 2020.
WATCH LIVE HERE
Meeting details Meeting Agenda Purpose of Committee
Your help could make all the difference.
Please act immediately before any further damaging and dangerous decisions are made.
Please email YOUR Council Leader and the members of this committee that represent YOUR area and demand that they, like Merton Council, reject the dangerous and reckless “Improving Healthcare Together” (IHT) plan. Demand that they refer this plan back to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.
The proposal is to remove the following services from BOTH Epsom Hospital AND St Helier Hospital:
- A&E
- Intensive Care
- Maternity
- Children’s Care (Including Queen Mary’s Hospital for Children)
- Emergency Medicine
- Emergency Surgery
- Cancer Care and
- Coronary Care
The so-called “Improving Healthcare Together” plan is to substitute all of those services with a much smaller, single "facility", with half the beds, fewer consultants, located in Belmont. That means it will be further away from most people, leading to longer journey times in emergencies and births.
The current 1,048 beds would be reduced to only 496 acute beds.
That’s 720,000 people with fewer than 500 acute beds.
NO A&E
NO MATERNITY
There would be no A&E department at either Epsom Hospital or at St Helier Hospital, just a GP-led or Nurse-led “Urgent Treatment Centre”, which will not be able to deal with life threatening situations.
There would also be no Maternity Unit at either Epsom Hospital or at St Helier Hospital, no on-site consultants and no hospital doctors at all overnight.
Admittance to the new facility would only be allowed via Emergency Ambulance or via a GP referral, causing extra burden on the ambulance service and causing further delays.
This plan moves ALL Acute Care services further away from the elderly population in Epsom and further from the deprived, vulnerable and BAME communities in Merton and Carshalton, placing the only acute facility in affluent Belmont, as part of the Royal Marsden Cancer Hospital.
This Plan Would Leave Us With:
FEWER ACUTE HOSPITALS
FEWER BEDS
FEWER DOCTORS
LOCATED FURTHER AWAY
The Royal Marsden has a high proportion of private patients and there are fears that the few remaining beds could be prioritised for those private patients, leaving even less capacity for “NHS” patients.
In Epsom, a quarter of the hospital land and buildings have already been sold off cheaply for a luxury housing development. See our previous report and videos by clicking here.
If this plan is allowed to proceed, even more land at Epsom Hospital and at St Helier Hospital is planned to be sold off, putting it beyond future use by the NHS.
NO EVIDENCE
We have asked repeatedly for evidence that their proposals would "improve healthcare", but none has been provided - instead, we believe that this plan would Destroy Healthcare Forever.
The plan would reduce the already over-stretched critical care capacity in this part of South West London and Surrey by at least one fifth and would increase the unnecessary harm and excess deaths that were already occurring due to cuts, even before the Covid-19 pandemic.
There is a danger that downgrading of Epsom Hospital and St Helier Hospital could pave the way for their eventual complete closure.
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
Please email YOUR Council Leader and the Councillors representing YOU at this meeting and demand that they do their duty to act in the best interests of local residents, when considering the impact that such a proposal would have on local healthcare provision, and to reject these reckless and dangerous plans.
Please email your Council Leader and your Committee member right now, before it’s too late.
Thank you.
LB Croydon | Cllr Tony Newman | Council Leader | tony.newman@croydon.gov.uk |
LB Croydon | Cllr Andy Stranack | JHOSC Member | andy.stranack@croydon.gov.uk |
LB Croydon | Cllr Sean Fitzsimons | JHOSC Member | sean.fitzsimons@croydon.gov.uk |
LB Kingston-Upon-Thames | Cllr Caroline Kerr | Council Leader | Caroline.Kerr@kingston.gov.uk |
LB Kingston-Upon-Thames | Cllr Lesley Heap | JHOSC Member | lesley.heap@kingston.gov.uk |
LB Kingston-Upon-Thames | Cllr Anita Schaper | JHOSC Member | anita.schaper@kingston.gov.uk |
LB Merton | Cllr Stephen Alambritis | Council Leader | stephen.alambritis@merton.gov.uk |
LB Merton | Cllr Thomas Barlow | JHOSC Member | thomas.barlow@merton.gov.uk |
LB Merton | Cllr Peter McCabe | JHOSC Member | peter.mccabe@merton.gov.uk |
LB Richmond-Upon-Thames | Cllr Gareth Roberts | Council Leader | cllr.g.roberts@richmond.gov.uk |
LB Richmond-Upon-Thames | Cllr Alan Juriansz | JHOSC Member | cllr.a.juriansz@richmond.gov.uk |
LB Richmond-Upon-Thames | Cllr Roger Crouch | JHOSC Member | cllr.r.crouch@richmond.gov.uk |
Surrey County Council | Cllr Tim Oliver | Council Leader | tim.oliver@surreycc.gov.uk |
Surrey County Council | Cllr Bill Chapman | JHOSC Member | bill.chapman@surreycc.gov.uk |
Surrey County Council | Cllr Nick Darby | JHOSC Member | nick.darby@surreycc.gov.uk |
LB Sutton | Cllr Ruth Dombey | Council Leader | ruth.dombey@sutton.gov.uk |
LB Sutton | Cllr Edward Joyce | JHOSC Member | edward.joyce@sutton.gov.uk |
LB Sutton | Cllr Colin Stears | JHOSC Member | colin.stears@sutton.gov.uk |
LB Wandsworth | Cllr Ravi Govindia | Council Leader | rgovindia@wandsworth.gov.uk |
LB Wandsworth | Cllr Adrian Flook | JHOSC Member | cllr.a.flook@wandsworth.gov.uk |
LB Wandsworth | Cllr Jeremy Ambache | JHOSC Member | cllr.j.ambache@wandsworth.gov.uk |