Epsom Hospital Update
Critical Care Centre kicked into the long grass
The planned future new critical care hospital, which was due originally to be built in Sutton to replace the acute centres at Epsom and St Helier, and was then switched on the instructions of the Government to St Helier last year, appears to have been shelved indefinitely for financial reasons. The announcement by the Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt followed a letter from the boss of the NHS in London in which he raised doubts about the affordability of the project. A copy of the letter is below.
"I think this spells the end of the Better Healthcare Closer to Home programme," said Chris. "I have always doubted whether the NHS locally could afford a new hospital. Now it looks as if senior people in the NHS share those doubts. This makes it all the more important that we fight to keep services at Epsom. If they move to St Helier, it looks as if they will stay there."
This is the text of the letter to Patricia Hewitt, which she accepted.The Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt MP
Secretary of State for Health
Richmond House
79 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2NS
2 August 2006
Dear Patricia
I refer to your decision on 19 December 2005 that the local NHS bodies should take forward detailed planning for a critical care hospital at St Helier. Your decision was in response to the referral by the London Borough of Merton's Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the joint decision by the local NHS to site a new critical care hospital at Sutton.
NHS London has noted that further developments have taken place since your decision, which affect the St Helier proposals. In particular, the South West London SHA had taken forward the process of considering the availability and status of the land (which is Metropolitan Open Land) at St Helier. They obtained a report, which they sent to you on 4 May 2006, concerning the planning and other legal restrictions affecting much of the relevant land. The report contained legal advice from solicitors (Capsticks) and counsel (Mr Guy Roots QC), and town and country planning advice from surveyors (Savills). The report concluded that there were severe difficulties in relation to planning permission, and restrictive covenants which would prohibit the intended development. On the basis of the report, South West London SHA concluded that any attempt to remove the restrictive covenants or obtain planning permission would be highly risky with low chances of a successful outcome.
In addition to the above difficulties, subsequent to your decision of 19 December, Kingston PCT and Sutton and Merton PCTs reported an unexpected and significant deterioration in their financial position. This is in the wider context of a financial deficit across NHS London. As a consequence, the NHS in South London is reviewing all major new areas of expenditure.
In your decision of 19 December 2005 you said that should it prove to be impossible to secure planning permission for the Metropolitan Open Land in a reasonable timescale, you would be prepared to support the location of the critical care hospital at Sutton. However, the financial issues mentioned above would apply equally to the Sutton proposals.
In view of these developments we would ask that you refer the matter back to NHS London in order for there to be a review of the proposals for a new critical care hospital in the light of the planning and legal issues and of the model of care for the area more generally, including issues of affordability. The review would be carried out in place of the work required by your decision of 19 December 2005.
If you are in agreement to this proposal, your decision of 19 December 2005 will have been overtaken by the changing circumstances set out above and you may think it right to withdraw that decision.
Yours sincerely
David Nicholson CBE
Chief Executive
