Save Our Hospitals - protest march 27 April 2013

 

Dr Onkar Sahota, local GP and  Ealing and Hillingdon’s London Assembly member, is leading the fight to stop the closure of NHS hospital services in North West London and invites everyone to  join the biggest public demonstration through the streets of Ealing in living memory being held on Saturday 27 April 2013.

 

To join the march to Save Our Hospitals meet at Southall Park at 11.30am or Acton Park at 12.30pm. Attend the rally at Ealing Common from 2pm.

Why we are campaigning

 

 

On 19 February the London NHS approved an unprecedented programme of hospital closures.

North West London NHS plans to close four out of nine accident and emergency departments in NW London and other important services, like maternity units at four NW London Hospitals, Ealing, Central Middlesex, Hammersmith and Charing Cross. This will affect the healthcare of 2 million people in the region.

If these closures go ahead there will be no Accident and Emergency (A&E) facilities in the London Boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith or Brent which together have a population the size of the city of Leeds. All emergencies will be diverted to neighbouring hospitals, such as Hillingdon and Northwick Park, which are already at capacity and exceed waiting time targets for A&Es.

1000 hospital beds will be lost and the NHS will sell hospital land to property developers to raise money.

88% of GPs in Ealing refused to support the closure plans. Save Our Hospitals campaigners believe the closures will lead to loss of lives.

The decision is in the hands of the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt MP, who has said it will be subject to an independent review after Ealing Council refused to accept the decision because it is bad for residents of the Borough and the region.

It is now vital that the people of Ealing, and the other boroughs of NW London, demonstrate their strength of opposition to this plan to prevent the government from following it through.

Opposition to the closures has received local cross party support :

“These plans will be devastating both for Ealing and across North West London. With the growing population in the region we desperately need the accident and emergency units, and other health services such as maternity and paediatrics, that are provided by Ealing, Central Middlesex, Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospitals. I am concerned that financial considerations are driving the proposed changes rather than people’s health needs and services will be stretched to beyond breaking point. I want as many people as possible to get involved in the Save Our Hospitals campaign so that health chiefs realise just how unpopular their proposals are.

 Cllr Julian Bell – leader of the Labour Group and Ealing Council

“We have joined with all the political parties in Ealing to save the hospitals that people in the area use, namely Ealing, Charing Cross, Hammersmith and Central Middlesex Hospitals. Under plans published in the Shaping a Healthier Future consultation, these hospitals will be downgraded to ‘local hospitals’, stripping them of nine of the eleven major types of service currently provided on-site. If these plans go through it will have a huge effect on all those who currently use the hospitals, especially those with chronic conditions who have to make their own way to hospital for treatment regularly.

 Cllr David Millican – leader of the Conservative Group Ealing

 

“My party are against the possible closures or downgrading of Ealing Hospital and the other hospitals which serve residents in the borough. If our local hospital loses the A & E, Maternity and Children’s wards, patients and visitors will have further to travel. People should make sure they fill in the petition. 

 Cllr Gary Malcolm – leader of the Liberal Democrat Group Ealing