A&E closures start in June

The community led Save our Hospitals campaign reports that the A&E department of central Middlesex hospital will close its doors in June, to be followed presumably by Hammersmith and Charing Cross in short order. This is despite, the campaigners point out, the following statement that was made at the meeting this week which sealed their fate:

"Work will start first on the out of hospital improvements and, only when these improvements have been made, will changes at hospital sites be implemented.
It will take at least three years for these initial improvements to be implemented, and up to two years for changes to hospital services that are reliant on out of hospital improvements. The timetable is subject to how quickly cases for capital can be approved and new buildings completed"

It seems that the lies which have characterised this "consultation" continue even into the implementation of their pre-cooked decisions. And, I have to say, the Council's backing of the plans is beginning to look more disastrous by the day as the details of just how damaging these closures are likely to be emerges.

It is now not even certain that the 60 beds, down from 500 at Charing Cross, will remain. Rather, the building will be knocked down and sold off to .... our old friends the property developers. Now there's a familiar H&F story.