Dear friend,

On Thursday 9th May 2013, local GPs and other clinicians met to discuss the future of St Helier Hospital and the proposals put forward by the Better Service Better Value (BSBV) review. Very disappointingly, the Sutton Clinical Commissioning Group has accepted the three proposals recommended by the BSBV review.
 
This is despite the clear opposition to these proposals that local campaigners and I presented to the meeting.
 
The decision means that St Helier is at risk of becoming a “local hospital”, losing its A&E and maternity units and Epsom is also potentially losing its frontline services, becoming a centre for elective care.
 
The second option, but less preferred by BSBV is Epsom becoming the local hospital with St Helier becoming the centre for elective care. The third option is St Helier continuing as an acute hospital with Epsom becoming the centre for elective care and Croydon University Hospital becoming the most downgraded.
 
But this is not a done deal.
 
These recommendations still need to be approved by the other Clinical Commissioning Groups in South West London before they will be subject to a public consultation.
 
I can assure you that I will continue to fight tooth and nail for the future of our local hospital. Over the next few days and weeks, I will be working with other local campaigners to plan how we can make sure the voice of the local community is heard.
 
We will be taking our campaign to the next level to ensure that NHS bosses can be in no doubt – we want to Save Our St Helier!  
 
In the meantime, make sure you have signed the petition in support of our hospital and encourage others to do so too. You can also show your support for St Helier by commenting on and sharing this facebook post.
 
Finally, if you want to know why these proposals are wrong for our local area and to find out more about the campaign, visit www.saveoursthelier.co.uk.   
 
By working together we can save our local hospital.
 
Tom Brake MP
Liberal Democrat for Carshalton and Wallington

PS: Make sure you have also signed the ‘Save Our St Helier’ Petition by clicking here.

Published and promoted by Sutton Lib Dems on behalf of Tom Brake MP, Room 2 Kennedy House, 5 Nightingale Road, Carshalton SM5 2DN.