Charing Cross A&E Department saved

Plans to close the Accident and Emergency department of Charing Cross Hospital have been scrapped in a last minute decision. The original plan to downgrade Charing Cross Hospital has been changed so that the hospital will still have a 24/7 emergency service for those who make their own way to the A&E. More complicated emergencies, including blue light emergencies will be directed to specialist centres. Many have said that the A&E Department hasn't properly been saved at all.

The final decision will be made by NHS North West London (NHS NWL) on February 19 but it is confirmed that the A&E unit will remain open. There will also be a £90 million cash injection to the hospital to help rebuild the site and will secure the future of the hospital.

Ealing, Hammersmith and Central Middlesex Hospital are expected to lose their A&E’s as a part of the Shaping a Healthier Future programme that needs to save around £1 billion over the next three years as well as aiming to improve standards.

However, the informal announcement by the Hammersmith & Fulham council was not seen as a major victory to the campaign groups. Campaign groups have said that this result is a ‘second-best deal’ and has fallen far short of their expectations.

They compare the deal to the one that Lewisham Hospital was given last week where its A&E was downgraded from category one to a category three unit.

Chair of the protest group, Carlo Nero, said: “If we’re effectively being given the deal Lewisham was offered why should our local doctors be anyless unhappy, and in some cases even outraged, than theirs?

“It seems clear to me, having chaired this campaign since last June, that this is absolutely not the result that Save our Hospitals was set up to achieve, and that we should continue to campaign.

They believe that the 500 in-patient bed and‘blue-light’ A&E will become somewhat of a cottage hospital with only 60 beds. The A&E usually treats 100,000 patients a year and has separate funding for cancer, teaching and mental health specialist departments and a new community service role.

A spokesman for Save Hammersmith & Fulham hospitals said: “We welcome the news that NHS North West London seems to be prepared to listen at last to residents’ concerns about its ill-thought out consultation plans to close four of the nine A&Es currently serving the area.

“However, until we see their actual proposal and read the small print we will continue to campaign for the preservation of full A&E services at both Charing Cross and Hammersmith hospitals.”

Greg Hands, the Tory MP for Chelsea and Fulham said that “This is definitely a step in the right direction compared with what was originally proposed, which was to reduce Charing Cross to something like a tenth of its current size.

“But we need to see more details and compare this new plan not just with the worst case scenario but also with the status quo.”

Hammersmith and Fulham councillor Marcus Ginn said:“The massive opposition from local people to the original proposals has forced NHS managers to rethink their plans.

“The £90m cash injection now proposed by the NHS would secure the hospital’s future for generations to come and the top priority was always to save Charing Cross and the services so many of our residents rely on.

“In return, we have agreed to halt our legal challenge to the NHS proposals as all but the most complex emergencies will continue to be treated at Charing Cross. We believe that we have secured the best possible deal for our residents.”

Imperial College London were contacted for comment, however they had none until after the public meeting on the 19th February where all the details will be announced.