MPS for the Bexley area have come out in general support for recommendations to dissolve the South London Healthcare NHS Trust.
The trust’s special administrator, Matthew Kershaw, produced a report today recommending:
- Developing Queen Mary's Hospital into a Bexley Health Campus, providing day case elective surgery, endoscopy and radiotherapy. It would be owned by Oxleas NHS Trust.
- Selling off "vacant and poorly utilised premises" around the Queen Mary's site and Bromley estate.
- Improving "operational efficiency" of trust sites including cutting the workforce.
- A £20m to £25m investment from the Department for Health to cover the costly PFI costs which funded Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Pru.
- Closing Lewisham Hospital A&E department with emergency care for south east London provided by King's College Hospital, St Thomas's, Queen Elizabeth and the Pru.
- Either shutting Lewisham Hospital's maternity unit or making it a standalone obstetric-led delivery facility.
- Making Lewisham Hospital an elective centre for non-complex inpatient procedures like hip and knee replacements.
- The sale of Orpington Hospital is also recommended.
Organisational changes
As part of Mr Kershaw's recommendations the trust would be broken up with other organisations taking over its services.
- Queen Elizabeth and Lewisham would merge to create a new organisation.
- The Pru could be acquired by King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. An alternative would see a procurement process allowing any NHS or private sector provider to bid for its services.
Teresa Pearce, MP for Erith and Thamesmead
“Given the circumstances for the people in my constituency it’s quite a good result.
“There was a great fear that services would be given to private companies but that hasn’t materialised which is good.
“But if Oxleas takes it over they may use external contractors and I would want to know who they are.
“It is good that the structural debt won’t be carried forward.
“You can’t make that amount of savings without job losses. But I hope the job losses can be done within agency staff and not full-time staff.
“We also have to make sure the transport system can cope. It’s very difficult to get form Darent Hospital from Erith for example. That’s something we need to look at.
“It’s very important that people take part in the consultation on Friday.”
Bexleyheath and Crayford MP David Evennett:
“I welcome the draft report’s recommendation that SLHT will be split up and that a Bexley Health Campus established on the Queen Mary’s Hospital site in Sidcup.
“The report sets out a positive vision that would include new cancer services being developed on the site and also become an important centre for urgent care services.
“I believe that these changes could help to preserve the long-term future of the Queen Mary’s site and provide vital healthcare facilities for Bexley residents.”
Old Bexley and Sidcup MP James Brokenshire:
"Combining three struggling NHS organisations into one single body was very high risk and has ended up creating a super failing trust.
"The administrator's recommendations set out a positive future for Queen Mary's. Putting the hospital under new NHS ownership is an essential step.
“It will give Queen Mary's greater financial stability and extricate the hospital from the huge PFI burdens linked to neighbouring hospitals which have literally been sucking the life out of it.
“The huge long-term and onerous liabilities attached to the PFI contacts signed up years before have also acted like a millstone dragging performance down.
“Endorsement of the so called 'campus plan' for a variety of hospital and community care is great news and the establishment of formal links with Darent Valley Hospital could provide opportunities for additional services in the future.
"It is right that clear proposals are now forthcoming to deal with the dire position of the South London Healthcare NHS Trust."
"If action hadn't been taken through the appointment of the administrator and confirmation from the Department of Health that additional funding would be made available to deal with the PFI problems, the sustainability of hospital services could have been drawn into serious question.
“There are points in the administrators report which will need careful scrutiny, including capacity at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to meet patient demands, but on balance these proposals do offer a positive way forward."
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