The excellent Chislehurst News blog has picked up a story that Queen Mary's hospital in Sidcup are turning away ambulances because they are unable to cope. A quote that Chislehurst News has used from South London NHS says “emergency ambulances do not take patients to Queen Mary’s. The Urgent Care Centre is for patients who do not require an ambulance.” The message obviously didn't get through to some crew, as I discovered whilst I attended Queen Mary's urgent care centre last week. Whilst there, two ambulances came in, one with an elderly lady who had a fall and the other with a lad with a badly bleeding arm. We can only assume then that either the hospital is turning away crews at certain times when they simply cannot cope with the amount of patients that have walked in, or that there is no set policy and somethimes they take patients from ambulances and other times they don't, which surely has produced confusion amongst staff.
I've never been happy about A Picture of Health, the programme that implemented the closure of the A&E and the maternity ward, and is about trying to get the best services at the best centres. Yes, it was implemented under the Labour government, but that doesn't mean that I think it's a good idea! The theory is sound; centres of excellence so that people can go not necessarily to their nearest hospital and recieve a mediocre service, but to attend a hospital that will specialise. But why should that mean the local A&E closes, sending people to Queen Elizabeth's Woolwich, or Princess Royal, Farnborough, both hospitals that, although new, haven't increased the size of their A&E to take into account the extra pressure from the closure of Queen Mary's?
What angers me is the hypocracy of local Conservatives. Eager to make high profile campaigns, they issued Save Our Services posters throughout the neighbourhood and held candlelit vigils outside the hospital. Watch the Conservatives videos below:
I'm not the only one to be angry. Check out Independents to Save Queen Mary's Hospital. Now that's anger.
When in opposition, it was Labour's policies and Labour's decisions. Bob Neill (MP for Bromley & Chislehurst), Derek Conway (then MP for Old Bexley & Sidcup), James Brokenshire (now MP for Old Bexley & Sidcup), David Evennett (MP for Bexleyheath & Crayford), Boris Johnson, along with a plethora of Tory councillors in Bexley poured scorn onto the proposals and pledged to fight the changes and overturn the decision once in power.
What happened when the Tories did get in? Andrew Lansley, he who is soon not of this government if reports are to be believed, decided that he would honour the decisions made, and that the departments would close. Suddenly the blame no longer fell onto the government, but the managers at South London NHS. Bob Neill clearly lays the blame at managers, as does James Brokenshire. How things shift when you're in power...
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Don't forget James Cleverly in this. He was the most vociferous and has insulted anyone who brings up this subject. I would really like this to make a difference to voting next time but as the unthinking majority in Bexley and Sidcup would vote for a wheelbarrow in a blue rosette I am not holding out any hopes.
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