MPs turn up the heat over threat to hospital

MPs from across the capital have lined up to criticise NHS London and its plans which could see A+Es, maternity units and other major services closed at scores of hospitals.

NHS London is considering reducing the number of A+Es and maternity units from four to three as part of a massive review of south-west London healtcare including Kingston, Croydon, St Helier and St George’s hospitals.

Edward Davey, Kingston and Surbiton’s Liberal Democrat MP, had been accused of scaremongering by Conservatives after he went public with concerns about the effect of the review on Kingston.

Conservatives, including former leader Ian Duncan Smith, described NHS London plans as a "disaster", during the parliamentary debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday evening.

And former Labour health secretary Frank Dobson described the review as "utterly stupid".

Susan Kramer, Richmond Park’s Liberal Democrat MP, said: "I also turn to the Conservatives and ask why they are singling out south-west London as [the one] place for which they do not demand information and why they will not join in the defence of the hospital, because it is time that they did, for the sake of all our constituents."

Mr Davey called for the publication of the report by McKinsey into the financial aspects of the review.

But health minister Mike O’Brien, who defended the review process as inspired by former health minister Lord Darzi, declined to order NHS London’s chief executive Ruth Carnall to publish the report.

Speaking after the debate, Kingston’s Conservative parliamentary candidate Helen Whately, defended her scepticism about the Liberal Democrats’ Save Kingston Hospital campaign but said it had now become clear the two hospitals most affected by the review were Kingston and St Helier.

She said: "We know that there’s a risk to our A+E and maternity unit in the future but I have also been clear no decision has been made on the closure of these services and we mustn’t give the public that impression."

During the debate, Tory MPs from north London described their anger at how five of their eight A and E departments were facing closure.

Theresa Villiers, Conservative MP for Chipping Barnet, said constituents were hugely concerned about the future of Barnet hospital and Chase Farm hospital and were angry that the whole NHS London process had been "so secretive, compounding fears that it is all about suiting the agenda of NHS managers, not patients?"

Former Tory leader Ian Duncan Smith said: "They talk about pushing stuff out into the community, but in our area there has been a 10 per cent fall in the number of health visitors, and the caseloads in relation to children under five are at least double that recommended by Lord Laming.

"It is an utter disaster."

Frank Dobson, Labour’s former health secretary, said: "It is NHS London, not NHRS London.

"It is there to help clinicians in London to improve the services, not to be a national health reorganisation service for London.

"A lot more attention needs to be paid to what local people want."

Justine Greening, Tory MP for Putney, said: "Residents across London are absolutely furious that they are not being involved in this process in the way that they want to be."

Andrew Pelling, Independent MP for Croydon, said he was told by NHS officials he would "kill or disable people" by opposing the proposals but he disagreed.

He said: "NHS officials - people who are making the decisions, and not democratically - have no understanding or sense of the real practicality of delivery."

But Stephen Hammond, Tory Wimbledon MP, said: "I was so concerned about some of the campaigning that has gone on, including a challenge in newspapers to me as Conservative MP for Wimbledon, that I met Healthcare for South West London last Friday, and was told that nothing was going to happen."

A spokesman for Healthcare for South West London said it welcomed the debate but its challenge was to treat more patients within its existing budgets.

She said: "We are opening more than a dozen polyclinics in south-west London to make it easier for people to see a GP or nurse when they need to.

"With more patients seen earlier and more illness prevented, hospitals can focus on doing fewer things to a much better standard."