Epsom Hospital Update
Accident and Emergency Department faces closure
30 September 2003:
See: Trust
Withdraws Controversial Plans After Huge Public Protest
The Epsom and St Helier Trust has prepared plans to close Epsom's Accident and Emergency Department. They want to leave the site with just a minor injuries unit. Although the Trust has publicly denied that a decision has been taken and they have stressed that most patients will continue to be treated at Epsom, they conspicuously failed to commit to the future of the full accident and emergency department.
"I am outraged by this development," said Chris. "Right the way through the process of reviewing future strategy, the Trust has said that the A&E Department is sacrosanct. Now we know that they have prepared a closure plan. This is a total betrayal of the people of Epsom and a U-turn by the Trust of monumental proportions. This is totally unacceptable and we will fight against it."
This is the text of the statement issued by the Epsom and St Helier Trust in response to questions about their plans.
Statement from: Dr Lindy Steven, Trust medical director and consultant anaesthetist
"The Financial Recovery Board suggested a review of all services to look at how we keep services safe for patients and financially workable for the next 7 years, until we build the proposed Critical Care Centre and Local Community Hospitals.
We have started internal discussions with our most senior doctors to explore various options to reorganise the specialist services particularly where we currently have the most problems recruiting. In the future this recruitment will be increasingly difficult due to the reduction of junior doctors hours and the European Working Time Directive.
At the moment we are having great difficulty recruiting A&E Consultants: we are currently using locum or temporary doctors but we can't carry on with this in the much longer term.
We know local people value the A&E service at both Epsom and St Helier hospitals, and we can guarantee that there will always be a service at each hospital to treat the vast majority of patients who use A&E.
In particular our senior doctors recognise that we have a duty to provide an A&E service but their concern is that this service is in the best interests of patients, and that we do not just provide a service.
I would like to strongly emphasise that no decisions have been made, and that this is the beginning of discussions with our doctors, which we must be allowed to have, to explore all the options for providing local people with the best healthcare. We will be talking to local people and asking for their views when we have some concrete proposals rather than just possible ideas, which is the early stage we are at currently."
Chris has said that this statement is a "smokescreen", designed to mask the real agenda of the Trust which is to move towards closure. "It says absolutely nothing to suggest that Epsom A&E has a future in anything except a downgraded form"
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