Last
month, specialist social researchers, TNS BMRB* published the results of a
survey in which polling showed that nearly three quarters of the 1217 adults
surveyed (72%) think politicians are more interested in furthering their own
careers than in doing the right thing for the people of Britain. 60% think they
do not represent “people like me”.
This
is hardly surprising considering the fiasco that is hospital services for the
people of Chislehurst, Petts Wood and Bickley, amongst others.
Way
back when, when the Conservatives were last in government, there were fully admitting
hospitals (i.e. those that “do everything”) in Sidcup, Orpington and Bromley
South. Today, the accident and emergency unit at Orpington is long gone, the
whole hospital at Bromley South has gone and the A & E at Queen Mary’s,
Sidcup has gone. Three A & Es that have disappeared in recent history.
Of
these three closures, the most galling is that of Queen Mary’s. Back in 2007 when
Labour were in power, the Chief Executive of Queen Mary’s denied that its A
& E was set for closure. In 2010, during the last general election
campaign, the Conservative manifesto stated
that if elected they would “...stop the forced closure of A & E and
maternity wards...” Once in power they blamed their failure to act on being in
a coalition, despite their coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats also being against the
closure.
Before
that, the PRUH at Farnborough was largely rebuilt using a Private Finance Initiative
scheme which, at £156 million, was amongst the highest value of such hospital
schemes. It had been intended that the sale of the Bromley South site would pay
for the rebuild but following a change of government the funds went into the
Treasury and the PFI scheme was put into place, with finance provided by (and
onerous contracts agreed with) United Healthcare (Farnborough Hospital) Ltd, a
consortium comprising Barclays Private Equity, Innisfree and Taylor Woodrow.
The contract term was 35 years!
Fast forward
to 30th September 2013. Queen Mary’s was by then in the hands of
South London Healthcare NHS Trust, which comprised Queen Mary’s, the PRUH and
Queen Elizabeth in Woolwich. This Trust had been formed in April 2009 under the
weight of the PFI debts. However, with debts rising to £207m, the Trust was
placed in special measures in June last year. Its final ignominy came five days
ago when the Trust was formally dissolved.
And what
a mess we have now!
From one
Queen Mary’s Hospital Trust we now have Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust running
Queen Mary’s with services provided at Queen Mary’s by no fewer than four
further Trusts! Question: How many managers does it take to run a hospital?
Answer: More than there are doctors and nurses.
And what
does Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, have to say about all this?
“What is in the clinical interests of patients in
South East London has been at the heart of my decision making process...”
So at the general election in
2015 when a politician asks you if you think that they represent “people like
you”, reply in three words:
“Queen Marys Hospital”.
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