There has been outcry from all quarters to the decision by A Picture of Health to strip emergency services from Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup, and turn it into a borough hospital.

  • THE most critical of reactions has come from the political party set up to fight to save Queen Mary's - Independents to Save Queen Mary's Hospital.

It is demanding the resignation of the hospital's chief executive, Kate Grimes, after she called the decision "a great opportunity" for Queen Mary's.

Party member John Hemming-Clark said: "She is supposed to be fighting for us, the patients and residents.

"But instead she calls the decision a great opportunity, having been marched down the road of cutbacks and putting patients' lives at risk with, no doubt, the promise of another cushy managerial position somewhere else a few months down the line, leaving chaos in her wake.

"Once again, it has been left to the patients and residents to fight for this decision to be reversed. And fight we will."

  • LONDON Assembly member for Bexley and Bromley, James Cleverly, is writing to Health Secretary Alan Johnson, asking him to suspend any moves to downgrade Queen Mary's and to "order a new, thorough and genuine public consultation on the hospital's future".

He said the decision by the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts "seems to have come to a pre-determined conclusion to slash services".

He added: "To dress this up as an improvement on present health provision is nothing less than a scandal."

Mr Cleverly said stripping A&E services from Queen Mary's would have a knock-on effect on surrounding hospitals, particularly the Princess Royal at Farnborough.

  • OLD Bexley and Sidcup MP Derek Conway, who campaigned to keep Queen Mary's emergency services open, described the outcome of A Picture of Health as "pre-ordained".

And he condemned the consultation process as a "sham public relations exercise".

He said: "The London NHS Board was determined to go down the route chosen, whatever the response.

"Even if hundreds of thousands said no, not this' it would have made no difference."

Mr Conway added: "Like all the great NHS reform schemes, we end up with lower quality access, huge but distant centres of excellence' and the public in Bexley served less well than before.

"The borough of Bexley deserves better."

  • MANY of Eltham MP Clive Efford's constituents regard Queen Mary's as their local hospital.

Mr Efford said he supported many of the decisions being made, especially on more community health facilities, the new urgent care units and the provision of urgent cardiology units.

He added: "However, I can see no reason why we cannot maintain a full A&E service at Queen Mary's.

"Changes in the way hospitals are funded mean the money will follow patients.

"If people cannot attend their local hospital, then money may start to leave our local health services."

  • HEALTH watchdog Health Emergency criticised the closure of maternity and A&E services at Queen Mary's as "a lethal cocktail of cash-led cuts, inept management and a total failure to listen to the views of local people".

The organisation's head of campaigns, Geoff Martin, said: "There is no doubt the lives of the seriously ill and badly injured, along with the lives of mothers and babies, will be put at risk, as they seek their care further afield in neighbouring hospitals which are already jammed full of patients."

Mr Martin said the plans for Queen Mary's were "entirely cash-led and driven by the costs of PFI schemes in south-east London, which have spiralled out of control."

He added: "It is the sick and injured and mothers and babies who will pay a heavy price for this sheer managerial and political incompetence."

  • DAVID Evennett, MP for Bexleyheath and Crayford, said: "This proposal is the worst possible option for the people of Bexley, with a reduction in choice and medical provision.

"I believe the decision has been taken for financial and political reasons.

"My fear now is Queen Mary's will face terminal decline."