DEFEND THE WHITTINGTON HOSPITAL COALITION

Poster

We have a new poster available for download and popping in your window, on your car’s back shelf, printing on vinyl and using to cover an umbrella… Whittington Poster

Jeremy Corbyn’s Early Day Motion (EDM 87) has so far been signed by only 19 MPs. If your MP hasn’t signed it yet please ask them to! You can get find you MP and send them an email directly from  Theyworkforyou.com.

Early Day Motion

EDM 87 WHITTINGTON HOSPITAL 18.11.2009 Corbyn, Jeremy 19 signatures

Abbott, Diane         Clark, Katy         Cohen, Harry
Cryer, Ann         Dobson, Frank         Featherstone, Lynne
Gerrard, Neil         Hoey, Kate         Hopkins, Kelvin
Illsley, Eric         Jackson, Glenda         Jenkins, Brian
McDonnell, John         Meale, Alan         Simpson, Alan
Thornberry, Emily         Wareing, Robert N         Wyatt, Derek

That this House recognises the Whittington Hospital is a valuable asset to healthcare in North London and has recently undergone a major rebuilding programme; notes that the Whittington receives into its accident and emergency department alone approximately 80,000 patients annually and offers accessible services including maternity, neo-natal, cancer, day surgery and more; is very concerned to hear ongoing talk of a threat to or merger of any of the Whittington’s major services with the Royal Free Hospital, thereby reducing the viability of the Whittington’s continued existence as a separate institution, and of its services to local people in Islington, Haringey and Camden; and calls upon NHS London to ensure the continued existence of the Whittington Hospital inclusive of its major services.

The Early Day Motion itself is online here: EDM 87.

We have the advantage that there is an election coming. Unfortunately all the major parties have threatened to slash public sector spending. We have to remind them who pays who’s wages and convince them that healthcare, along with other public services, is more important than the Trident replacement.

Islington NHS Statistics

We have received a copy of Islngton NHS’s 2009 report ‘Health Facts For Islington’ which makes for interesting reading. It’s on site here: Health in Islington – The Facts.

Remember to come along to the meeting on Monday where we will be discussing the next steps of the campaign and, if it’s your sort of thing, to join our Facebook group and follow us on Twitter (links are on the right of this page.)

This week keeps on getting busier and I know there’ll be stuff I’ve missed but this is the latest campaign news.

Transport disruption on Saturday

There are disruptions to public transport on Saturday which, while a pain, serve to highlight one of the many reasons we need to keep an A&E at the Whittington. Read more…

We’ve received this piece of NCL NHS information through a third party rather than directly from NCL NHS themselves.

“NCL Vision

To improve the health of our population over the next five years compared with Londoners as a whole. In particular, we will improve health outcomes by addressing health inequalities within our population, focusing on our most deprived communities.” Read more…

At some point over last weekend a friend and I wrote this and I recorded it in true bedsit fashion.

Click here for the song: Whittington Song.

The Whittington Song, by Dave Plummer and Andria Britton.

Don’t make a casualty of our A&E,
Don’t try to fit us all in to the Royal Free,
Not saying nothing’s wrong with the Homerton,
But we need an A&E at the Whittington. Read more…

Submitted by Dave Morris of Defend Haringey’s Health Services Coaltion; NHS NCL Strategy Plan distributed by Lynne Featherstone MP.

We now have the NHS official proposals for North Central London area. The key pages are pages 79-82 with the ‘7 scenarios’.

Its clearly an attack on the services at all North London’s hospitals, and we have to stick together and resist any ‘divide and rule’ tactics.

All of the scenarios seem to downgrade most of the Hospitals with only one scenario maintaining any of the 6 hospitals as a District General Hospital (Scenario 1 – for Barnet and North Middx).

Re: Whittington specifically:

– All ‘scenarios’ include an ‘Urgent Care Centre’.

– 3 scenarios include full A&E retained, 2 scenarios retain just 16hrs A&E, 2 scenarios have no A&E.

It needs checking carefully… but the battle is well and truly on.

North Central London NHS Strategy Plan 2010 – 2014: Options document

– by Rachel Tyndall, NHS North Central London

Click here to download (.pdf, 2.27 mb)