JUST WHEN you think you’ve got a new hospital well on track, along comes a new Government which shunts it into the sidings. It doesn’t matter how much consultation you’ve had or why you need it: the Minister wants to reconsider.
The whole of East London is in this together. Our hospital provision has been lumped together into one big Trust (Barts Health). To some extent this is a good thing, as we can always make sure that any spare capacity at one hospital is shared round. On the other hand, if one hospital goes down, we are all stuck. While the Minister is having his rethink, campaigners in Leyton need your assistance in helping him make his mind up.
Whipps Cross Hospital gamely carried on while other hospitals in East London were refurbished or even rebuilt. Boris Johnson anounced in 2020 that a new Whipps Cross Hospital would be built. Health Campaigners were delighted, until doubts crept in when it was revealed that the inefficient and tired old building would be replaced by a new one (hurray!) but the new hospital may have fewer beds than the old one (groan!).
Four years later, and with building expected to start next year, the new Labour Government has paused all hospital developments. Campaigners in NELSON (North East London Save our NHS) have started a petition, addressed to the two local MPs: Calvin Bailey MP (Leyton & Wanstead) and Stella Creasy MP (Walhamstow). The petition asks the two local MPs to tell those conducting the review that there is an urgent need for more and better hospital facilities at Whipps Cross. In particular, campaigners want to see more hospital beds in the new hospital than there were in the old one and no loss of services.
Campaigners are asking you to sign their petition and to circulate to your friends and family. You don’t have to live in Calvin Bailey or Stella Creasy’s constituencies to sign it. If you have a different MP, why not send them the link to this petition and ask them to sign it too? It took a lot of people working together to get us all an NHS: now we need to work together to keep it.
●Sign the petition here: Petition
●For more information, read this article in the Waltham Forest Echo: Waltham Forest Echo
●Read more about it: More Stories about Whipps Cross Hospital