THREATS to close Ealing Hospital's Accident and Emergency unit have been stopped in their tracks by the new health secretary.
During the election campaign, Andrew Lansley, the then shadow health secretary, vowed to scrap plans by NHS London to downgrade services at hospitals across the capital in a bid to redress a £5billion funding shortfall.
And true to his word, the MP for South Cambridgeshire announced on Wednesday he would stop the controversial plans going ahead, forcing NHS London to go back to the drawing board.
Ealing Hospital Save Our Services campaign group are delighted with the move and Colin Standfield, chairman, said: "These plans would have wrecked healthcare provision in North West London and massively disenfranchised our local population in Ealing and Southall.
"We always argued they would have actually made healthcare more expensive and less efficient. Most of what NHS London was relying on to 'deliver' this care hasn’t even been built let alone thought through. It was a knee jerk reaction in a desperate attempt to save money at the expense of the lives and well being of Londoners."
Ruth Carnall, Chief Executive of NHS London said: "The Secretary of State is clear that GPs must take the lead in deciding which services are provided locally. He is also clear that Londoners must have a bigger say on the shape of local services and be able to make informed choices on where they go to receive care.
"To support this, we will make available to the public as much information as possible on the quality of our services and provide substantial clinical evidence for any proposed changes.
"NHS London remains committed to improving the quality of care we provide for everyone who uses the NHS in the capital. Over the next few months we will be working with GPs and other clinicians to understand how best to support them as they deliver the urgently needed improvements to London’s healthcare."
For more information about the campaign group, visit www.ealinghospitalsos.org.uk .
