This article appeared in the Surrey Comet on March 19, 2010

A surgeon at Kingston Hospital has come out against the south west London review and warned that the hospital is overstretched enough without services being cut.

Albert Ampofo, Unison branch secretary at Kingston Hospital, spoke out as part of his union’s campaign to head off a situation where the four hospitals in south west London being played off against each other.

Mr Ampofo said: "Our services were under massive pressure over Christmas and the New Year – pressures that used to be restricted to the winter also now seem to have got into the habit of running on throughout the whole year.

"We are always busy.

"The idea that against that background we can afford to lose any of our services is ridiculous.

"We also have no spare capacity to soak up demand from anywhere else – that is why we are opposed to any cuts and closures in South West London and beyond."

Kevin O’Brien, his counterpart at Epsom and St Helier, said: "For over ten years the Unison branch at Epsom and St Helier, has fought plans to close and downgrade services at our hospitals.

"It has been a long hard fight.

"We put literally thousands of people on the streets on Epsom and Sutton and made sure that the future of our hospitals was the big local issue that everyone was talking about.

"Now it looks like we will have no choice but to fight again as leaks from the South West London Hospitals review send out a clear warning that the threat to our hospitals and our key services is back on the agenda with a vengeance."