Ealing Council leader Julian Bell was at the Old Bailey on Wednesday to support the borough's calls for a judicial review into Government plans to downgrade Ealing Hospital.
The Labour councillor was greeted by campaigners and London Assembly member for Ealing, Dr. Onkar Sahota, before entering the courthouse to back calls for a review.
Cllr Bell, speaking outside court, said of the review: "The whole future of Ealing’s and West London’s [health service] rely on it."
However the counsel for the other side argued that the reforms would benefit Ealing residents by improving the level of care on offer, and the appeal was rejected on Thursday.
Ealing Council's QC had told the court that the borough has the highest rate of cardiovascular disease in North West London. He referred to the Tim Rideout report, which said “Ealing residents face the most disruption and change because of the process”. An additional argument was that the consultation process did not take into account the views of the decision makers.
The NHS legal support, headed by Neil Garnham QC, said that the needs of the borough were not greater than other institutions in North West London. He argued that in-depth consultation had taken place throughout the process.
NHS Northwest London Director of Strategy, Daniel Elkeles attended the proceedings with Dr. Mark Spencer.
As an Ealing GP and medical director for NHS North West London ‘Shaping a Healthier Future' reforms, Dr Spencer said: "This is a clinically-led process…the opposition were very clear that centralising services onto fewer sites made very good sense because that would give better care to the patients. This will be 100% clearly be better than just leaving it as it is. We don’t have any proposal to close Ealing Hospital. We want to redesign it so that it’s suitable for the local population.”
He said there would be a focus on preventative care, "so lots of work in the community – but also then specialist care to help make diagnosis to see people in outpatients, to do blood pressure tests, to help people with their exercise and all those things will happen in the new Ealing site."
Judge Messing acknowledged that the case was “quite complicated” and “obviously of great importance to the residents of Ealing".
Following the judge's decison, Julian Bell said "We put forward some strong arguments. It’s clear that all the way through we had a significant consultation with residents. It was clear from our submissions that the quality impact assessments were not properly considered by the JCTPT when they made their decision.
"Everyone involved in the campaign will be devastated by this decision. The future of these vital health services now rests with [Health Secretary] Jeremy Hunt who can still reject these monstrous plans.”
The Secretary of State is expected to give his verdict on the case around October 23, a day after Ealing Council’s cabinet meets to discuss next steps.
A public rally is scheduled for Saturday October 19, opposite Ealing Hospital.
