Ilford South Labour Party

Monday March 8th is the deadline for the public consultation on the health authorities proposals for North East London, including the closure of Accident & Emergency and other services at King George Hospital.

What can you do NOW?

1. Take part in the consultation, which runs until March 8 2010. Fill in the questionnaire on the Website www.healthfornel.nhs.uk.

2. Write in protest to Freepost RSAE RCET ATJY, Health for North East London, Harrow, HA1 2QG.

3. Call them with your views on 0808 238 5416 ( it is a free line).

4. Sign Mike Gapes M.P’s new petition on line at www.savekinggeorgehospital.org.uk or by requesting forms from his Constituency Office at 6 Mildmay Road, Ilford, Essex, IG1 1DT, Tel: 020 8911 0899. Forms need to be returned by Monday 8th March.

5. If you can manage it, we are encouraging everyone to ask for some forms and get their friends and neighbours to sign. Just remember we need them back by March 8th

Despite poor weather on 13th. February hundreds of supporters of the campaign to keep King George Hospital turned out to march from the Hospital to the Town Hall.
Ilford South Labour Party members were prominent on the march and the overall organiser Andy Walker is a member of Seven Kings Branch Labour Party.

At the Town Hall there were speeches from local M.P’s including our own Mike Gapes and Margaret Hodge from Barking.

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Among our photos here we see Mike Gapes M.P. at the start of the march, crowds outside the Town Hall, Cllr Stuart Bellwood and Aziz Choudhry Labour candidate for Valentines in the May  council elections in demonstrating mood, and Cllr Javed with Ilford South Labour Party Chair Helen Coomb and her sister Catherine on the march.

The Campaign goes on with another rally planned for 17 April. This time the idea is to get the local faith groups, who have all been keen supporters of the hospital to take the lead. Andy Walker is again the Organiser, watch out for more details.

In the meantime remember to sign Mike’s petition on his website, or if you want to  get your friends and neighbours to sign, ask for paper copies ( phone 020 8911 0899) and return them to Mike’s Constituency Office at: 6 Mildmay Road, Ilford, Essex, IG1 1DT.

Also remember you have until 8 March to participate in the consultation on health services in North East London. Go to www.healthfornel.nhs.uk or use the freephone 0808 238 5416.

The photograph shows Ilford South Labour Party members, with their M.P Mike Gapes, just before they presented the petition with 28,000 signatures demanding that King George Hospital be saved in 2007.

Our 2007 Campaign was successful. Now the regional health service management have returned to this ridiculous proposal. They have issued ‘Health for North East London’ a consultation document which in their view is the route to ‘delivering high quality hospital health services for the people of north east London’. What appears again is the downgrading of King George Hospital, closure of the A&E and closure of the maternity unit.

4 years ago Lord Ara Darzi was commissioned by the Government to look into the future of healthcare in London. His initial proposals envisaged local hospitals serving a population of between 200,000 and 250,000 proposals. Under these proposals, from our health service managers, Redbridge plus Barking and Dagenham with an expanding population, currently of 446,000 will be deprived of a local hospital.

Already Redbridge Council has rejected the proposals at its Health Scrutiny Committee and voted to ‘refer the issue to the Secretary of State for Health requesting that he establish an independent review of these proposals…’

What can you do?

1. Take part in the consultation, which runs until March 8 2010. Fill in the questionnaire on the Website www.healthfornel.nhs.uk.

2. Write in protest to Freepost RSAE RCET ATJY, Health for North East London, Harrow, HA1 2QG.

3. Call them with your views on 0808 238 5416 ( it is a free line).

4. Sign Mike Gapes M.P’s new petition on line at www.savekinggeorgehospital.org.uk or by requesting forms from his Constituency Office at 6 Mildmay Road, Ilford, Essex, IG1 1DT, Tel: 020 8911 0899.

5. If you can manage it, we are encouraging everyone to ask for some forms and get their friends and neighbours to sign. Just remember we need them back by March 8th

6. JOIN THE MARCH AND RALLY. Meet outside King George Hospital on Barley Lane at 1.15 p.m. on Saturday 13 February 2010. March to the Town Hall in Ilford High Road where you will hear Mike Gapes M.P (Ilford South), Lee Scott M.P. ( Ilford North) and Chris Carter (Editor of the Ilford Recorder) speak against the proposals from the Town Hall steps.

Read Mike Gapes full speech in Parliament on this subject, go to www.mikegapes.org.uk

Mike Gapes, along with other local politicians, will lead a march from King George Hospital at 1.15 on Saturday 13th February to a Rally at Ilford Town Hall where he will speak against the proposed closure of the Hospital’s Accident & Emergency department and threat to over 400 beds. Come along on the day and make your voice heard. Commit to attending at:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=216847844343

Barbara White was at the forefront of the successful campaign to Save King George hospital and now she is campaigning for better health services in the community. Barbara says

“Thanks to Labour there is much more investment in our health service locally and nationally. The new state of the art Loxford Health Centre will open next year. I am pleased that four more health centres/polyclinics are planned for our borough including one at Gants Hill.”

This additional investment means extra capacity including x-ray and diagnostic facilities in the community - more GPs, nurses and other healthcare professionals, more appointments, and longer and more convenient opening hours from 8am-8pm, 7 days a week.

The national Tories would reverse the agreement Labour has secured for evening and weekend GP opening hours. Now local Tories are running a scaremongering campaign opposing local health centres. There can be only one conclusion: Tory medicine makes you sick.

Mike Gapes, MP for Ilford South, talks about local health services, housing, transport and the elections for the London Mayor and the Greater London Authority.

“On Friday morning there was the regular meeting of local MPs with NHS managers. I was shocked to discover that the deficit at the Barking, Havering and Redbridge Acute Hospitals trust has now grown to a massive £39.9 million for this financial year. A huge part of this is as a result of the costs of the Romford Queens Hospital PFI and even more is due to the North East London Independent Treatment Centre.

Both the top managers have now left the trust and the new Chairman Eric Nath and Interim Chief Executive John Goulston will in my view need several years to turn things round. There must be no quick fix solutions based on cuts to services in Ilford.

I pressed Primary Care Trust Chief Executive Heather O’Meara who will report on Out of Hospital services for London region NHS early next year for an assurance that “Fit for the Future” is dead and that the crazy option four will not be reintroduced under another name. I was told that it has beeen “stood down”. That is not sufficient. There must be a clear public statement that Option four is permanently off the table and will not be brought back. I will continue to fight for the interests of my constituents. I will only accept changes which improve their access and the quality of their health care. Ilford needs and deserves a local hospital. I will fight tooth and nail any attempt to sacrifice King George Hospital on the altar of problems caused by incompetent management and escalating costs of running Queens Hospital or the ISTC.”

Come and say No to the threatened Closure to A&E at King George Hospital

Speakers
Chris Carter, Ilford Recorder Editor
Mike Gapes MP
Lee Scott MP
Cllr Ralph John Scott

Saturday 27 October 1.30pm outside Ilford Town Hall

The above rally has been organised because of the real threat that A&E could be closed at King George Hospital. A study by Sheffield university published earlier this year found the further seriously ill patients had to travel to A&E the more likely they were to die. It is vital we have a good turn out on the day to a clear message to policymakers that we do not want to lose A&E at King George Hospital.

We will be canvassing door to door before the rally to encourage people to display window posters advertising the event. If you want to help, please phone Andy on 07956 263088. The link attached is a poster which can be printed off for display in your car or home window.

Mike Gapes MP and a group of supporters today deliver his petition to Save King George Hospital to Ruth Carnall, Chief Executive of London Region NHS.

The petition, launched at Christmas has now got a magnificent 25202 signatures from local residents. Mike also provided Ms Carnall with a letter setting out the detailed case against the closure and argued strongly to keep both an Accident and Emergency Department and a wide range of facilities for planned elective operations at our local King George Hospital.
To read the full text of the letter, please visit Mike’s own website at http://www.mikegapes.org.uk/?p=91#more-91

Mike Gapes MP has welcomed a study published today which shows that patients lives are put at risk if they have to travel further to Hospital Accident and Emergency Departments.

This important research which is based on a study of 10,000 patients by a team at Sheffield University was funded by the Department of Health is published in the Emergency Medicine Journal and reported in the national press.

Mike Gapes said “This report makes the case for keeping the Accident and Emergency Department at King George Hospital Ilford and not forcing my constituents in Ilford South to have longer journeys in congested traffic to Queens Hospital Romford or Whipps Cross Leytonstone. I accept that there may be cases where some people are so badly injured or ill that they must go to the specialist hospital further away but in other cases such as people with breathing difficulties as this report shows the risks of patients dying in transit are significantly increased by longer journeys. This report should be required reading by all those NHS managers involved in the “Fit For the Future” exercise. It could be the final nail in the coffin of the mad plan known as Option Four to close the A&E at KGH”

For Further information contact Mike Gapes MP at gapesm@parliament.uk, ring 020 7219 6485 or visit www.mikegapes.org.uk