There is a campaign to save the accident and emergency hospital
facilities at Lewisham Hospital. Details of a march this Saturday and a
petition to sign.
‘Act Now!
Defend yourselves from having one A&E
between 750,000 residents.
As you hopefully know, various services at
Lewisham Hospital are under threat due to the recommendations of Matthew
Kershaw, the TSA appointed to review the South London Health Trust.
The South London Health Trust was created in 2009 to try and solve the problems
of the Princess Royal in Orpington, Queen Mary's in Sidcup and the Queen
Elizabeth in Woolwich which were losing money. It has failed to solve the
problems and the trust has since accrued debts of more than £150M. The TSA has
made a series of recommendations to the Secretary of State for Health on how he
would deliver access to safe, high quality, affordable health services and a
long-term sustainable health economy for the people of south east London. These
include closing parts of Lewisham Hospital, selling off land and expecting us
to go to King's College Hospital in Camberwell or Queen Elizabeth in
Woolwich. We, and many physicians, disagree with his conclusions.
Save Lewisham Hospital is
a community campaign fighting against the proposed closure of Lewisham Hospital
including its new A&E department, Intensive Care, maternity and children's
services. We will be joining them in a demonstration on Saturday 26th January
to show Jeremy Hunt that the people of Lewisham are determined to SAVE LEWISHAM
HOSPITAL! Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, will make his decision at the
start of February.
If you would like to join us, please either
meet us at The Capitol (JW Wetherspoon's) on London Road at 10:45am or at
Catford Bridge station, where we will be catching the 11:38am Southeastern
train service towards Lewisham and London Cannon Street Rail Station. The
march will start at Lewisham Roundabout (by the station) at 12 noon on Saturday
26th January and march past the hospital to Mountsfield Park for a rally, music
and giant petition (about two miles).
Over 10,000 people marched through Lewisham
on 24th November 2012 – young, elderly, families and people from every
background, so we have allowed for delays in getting to the march. We need a
huge turnout, so encourage everyone you know to come and march with us on Saturday
26th January. We will be easy to spot - we will have placards and hi-vis
jackets on.
I look forwards to seeing you there.
Richard Hibbert
Chairman, Forest Hill Society
07833-315563’
