Community fights for health
WORKERS, OCT 2007 ISSUE
At a public meeting in north east London held by the Save Whipps Cross campaign, local people heard from platform and floor speakers about what is happening with their local District General Hospital. A year on from the massive public meeting held when the downgrading of Whipps Cross was first proposed among a series of options for local health provision, no formal consultation has yet been held.
The meeting heard that Whipps Cross has made cuts which have led to a balancing of the budget, and that its clinical services have been rated as good. In fact, the strength of feeling showed by local people through the campaign may have shifted the threat to Accident and Emergency Services to King George's in Ilford, another local District General Hospital.
Campaigners felt that both hospitals desperately need the full range of services given the density of the population (set to increase further), the high proportion of patients with acute health needs (relative to other parts of London), and the congestion-clogged local transport systems which make travel further afield so difficult.
Whipps Cross consultant Alan Hakim said that the hospital urgently needed modernising, and given the size of the population it should be upgraded to an acute hospital, with new networks built between clinical and community care. But how will this happen, and when will the community services be put in place to enable GPs to pick up the easier health problems? These questions are not being answered at present, and campaigners say it is essential that existing services are fullY kept until they are.