Hospitals Review
The Editor
Dear Sir,
No sooner has the new Queen’s Hospital opened, than the future of all our local hospitals is under review in the NHS Fit for the Future programme.
I have had a very full postbag from local people who are concerned about how and where health services will be provided in the Havering and Redbridge Hospitals Trust area. Everyone will have the opportunity to make their opinions known in the public consultation exercise to be held in April. This will comprise public meetings, questionnaires and a website. Details of venues, dates and points where forms may be collected will be publicised nearer the time.
Following a series of meetings with the Primary Care Trust, I know that the 5 options to choose from will be as follows:
1. Queen’s as a major acute hospital; Whipps Cross and King George Hospitals remain as district general hospitals (DGHs), plus an Independent Sector Treatment Centre (ISTC) at King George.
2. Queen’s as a major acute hospital; Whipps Cross – emergency focus; King George’s – elective focus, plus an ISTC at King George
3. Queen’s Hospital as a major acute hospital; Whipps Cross – elective focus; King George’s – emergency focus, plus ISTC at King George’s.
4. Queen’s Hospital as a major acute hospital; Whipps Cross remains a full DGH; King George’s becomes an “ambulatory care centre” (Outpatient)
5. Queen’s Hospital as a major acute hospital; King George’s remains a full DGH; Whipps Cross becomes an ambulatory care centre, plus an ISTC at King George.
Information about specific health services and where they will be provided in future will be available as part of the consultation. I am particularly concerned about maternity services. Already, only high risk cases are dealt with at Queen’s and routine cases have to travel all the way to King George’s, which is much too far and inconvenient for women living in Upminster constituency. If Option 4, the preferred NHS option, is chosen, then at least one midwife led maternity centre will have to be provided, possibly two, on sites within the Trust area. The NHS considers Option 1 to be unviable. I hope it will be helpful for local people to have time to think about these proposals and their many implications in advance of the public consultation, although the finer details are yet to be announced. It is important that as many people as possible respond so that local health services meet local needs.
Yours sincerely
Angela Watkinson MP
