01.02.13
Lewisham Hospital to keep A&E department, Hunt announces
South London Healthcare NHS Trust is to be dissolved by 1 October 2013 – but Lewisham hospital will keep its A&E department, health secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced.
Hunt has accepted the broad recommendations of Trust Special Administrator Matthew Kershaw, appointed last July to identify a clinical and financial solution for the failing trust.
SLH NHS trust will be dissolved, with its three hospitals taken over by neighbouring trusts. All three will be required to make the full £74.9m efficiencies identified by Kershaw’s report, and all vacant or poorly used premised will be vacated and sold.
The Department for Health will pay for the excess costs of the trust’s PFI deals and write off its accumulated debt – expected to be over £200m by the end of the year.
Specialist emergency care will be centralised at four sites in South East London to improve the quality of care for patients. However, Lewisham Hospital will retain its A&E department to treat up to 75% of its current patients with less serious conditions.
Hunt said: “The longstanding problems at South London Healthcare NHS Trust must not be allowed to compromise patient care in the future. Hundreds of millions of pounds have been spent on paying for debt rather than improving patient care for the local community in South East London.
“What is in the clinical interests of patients in South East London has been at the heart of my decision making process, and as a result I have followed clinical advice to keep open the A&E in Lewisham.
“However, some changes need to be made so that money is spent on patient care rather than servicing historic debt. The decisions I have taken today will ensure that and that patients in South East London will be able to rely on the NHS for years to come.”
Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS medical director said: “Healthcare in South East London is at a turning point. We need to strike the right balance between ensuring that all patients have access to the best possible specialist treatment whilst providing safe, effective and convenient services close to home.
“I expect that balance to result in about three quarters of patients currently seen in Lewisham A&E continuing to receive complete care at Lewisham Hospital and about a quarter being transferred for more specialist treatment elsewhere.”
However, the Save Lewisham Hospital campaign said that the fight is not over, with the paediatric A&E set to be lost under the proposals and the A&E department severely reduced.
Dr Chidi Ejimofo, A&E Consultant from the campaign, said: “An A&E of the type described is little more than an Urgent Care Unit – patients will still have to be transported to other hospitals because we will no longer have acute provision here.
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