Letter for publication: Edgware Hospital
Dear editor,
I must correct one point in Mr Deckett’s letter (14/2/14): Labour did not close Edgware Hospital’s A and E department. This was closed by the then Conservative Government in an act of spite on 1st April 1997, just a month before we won the General Election on 1st May that year.
During that election campaign, Labour promised a review of what we could do, as the hospital had now been closed. After we were elected, it was found internal demolition had already commenced and the medical Royal Colleges declared the hospital to be clinically unsafe. Even so, I convinced the then Prime Minister the review should go ahead , and a prominent role was played by the late Stan Davison, the late Dr Albert Manning and Trish Kershaw in particular, who spent many hours in dozens of meetings with me and local NHS chiefs working up the details. This enabled me to win the necessary funding for the new hospital, which opened in 2004.
Edgware’s urgent treatment centre, which became the walk in centre, now treats twice as many patients as did the old hospital’s A and E and it plays a key role in helping ease workloads at other A and E departments.
Turing to Barnet Hospital, the problems Mr Deckett reports are all too common and are not acceptable. The London Assembly Health Committee on which I sit has just inquired into A and E problems across London. In the 10 weeks up to the middle of last month, Barnet had 90 incidences of ambulance handovers delayed over 30 minutes, and 622 beds unavailable due to delayed transfers for the hospital to other forms of care, the responsibility of the local councils. This demonstrates the need to integrate community care into the NHS, as Labour advocates.
In the short term it also shows how wrong it was to close Chase Farm’s A and E just at the time when winter pressures are at their worst. So much for the unequivocal pledge before the last election of David Cameron and Andrew Lansley (then the shadow health secretary) that Chase Farm would not be cut if the Conservatives won the election.
yours sincerely
Andrew Dismore
Labour MP for Hendon 1997 to 2010 and parliamentary candidate for 2015
Labour London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden
