Epsom Hospital Update
MP calls for divorce as NHS looks to St Helier
Local MP Chris Grayling has called for a split between Epsom and St Helier hospitals as the NHS's review of hospital services looks increasingly likely to recommend the building of two new hospitals at St Helier and the downgrading of Epsom.
If senior managers get their way, the NHS will build a new Critical Care Hospital on the green land next to St Helier. It will also build a brand new Local Care Hospital there.
If this happens Epsom Hospital will lose its acute services, including A&E and Maternity. It will become a Local Care Hospital, offering outpatient services, minor injuries treatment and some day surgery. Behind the scenes managers are planning to move the Elective Orthopaedic Centre - opened four months ago by the Queen - probably to St Helier.
The NHS will put the different options to a public consultation in September.
The move is likely also to spell the disappearance of some Surrey cottage hospitals. Epsom's New Cottage Hospital will almost certainly close, and probably the Old Cottage Hospital too. Surrey will not get one single new facility.
"That's why this campaign is so important," Chris says. "Because we must not let them do this. We need to end the tie-up with St Helier now. There will be complications and difficulties doing so, but we have nothing to lose. We need a genuine solution that really does keep our healthcare closer to home.
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