Crispin Blunt

Conservative Party | Reigate

Local MP meets with NHS Chief Executive for the South Coast region

A new hospital at Sutton can serve local people best says Blunt

Crispin Blunt, MP for Reigate, met yesterday with the Chief Executive of NHS South East Coast region to call for her support for plans for a new district general hospital* at Sutton. This follows the announcement that there will no longer be a new critical care hospital. A review of the Better Healthcare Closer to Home programme concluded that there should instead be a new general hospital to serve south London and mid-Surrey. The Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt had previously overruled the report’s finding that there should be a new hospital at the Sutton Hospital site but reversed her decision in the face of a legal challenge from Reigate and Banstead Borough Council and Surrey County Council. Speaking after the meeting Crispin Blunt said:

“Nearly 18 months ago there was a clear decision, supported by the local medical community, that there should be a new hospital at Sutton to replace services no longer provided at Epsom hospital and currently provided at the life-expired St Helier Hospital. Patricia Hewitt overruled that recommendation in order to prevent her fellow Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh from losing a major A&E facility immediately adjacent to her constituency despite the fact that this was in the wider health interests of many hundreds of thousands of other people locally. When the St Helier plan failed in the face of the legal challenge and because of insurmountable planning difficulties the further review recommended a more affordable plan. But again the practical and clinical solution is a new hospital on the old Sutton hospital site.”

The Sutton site is adjacent to the Royal Marsden Hospital, ranked as one of the best foundation hospitals in Britain. The Royal Marsden is a dedicated cancer hospital and would benefit from having a modern general hospital half a mile away. The St Helier site is beset with planning problems and the current building is in need of replacement. The only available land for a new building is Metropolitan Open Land – an area which is subject to severe planning restrictions.

Crispin Blunt is working for the Sutton site as it provides the best sustainable option in conjunction with greater facilities at St George’s Tooting and the East Surrey Hospital. Blunt said yesterday:

“If there is a new District General Hospital in the Borough of Sutton as this report recommends Epsom Hospital will not continue to have full A&E facilities. Sutton infinitely the best option. Sutton is on the border of London and Surrey and ideally situated to serve both communities. I will be calling on the key decision makers and demanding that the clear clinical case for Sutton is heard and that we will not see another politically motivated decision putting the needs of Labour MPs above those of patients. In conjunction with the site for Sutton we need to fight for specialist facilities to be provided from Epsom such as the current imaginative proposal being put forward by Adrian White the former chairman of the Trust.”

* The original Better Healthcare Close to Home proposal was for a new Critical Care Hospital serving 500,000 people. The new plans are for a new District General Hospital serving 250,000 people.