Please let us know what you can do. We have posters and badges available so please let us know if you need some.

The focal point of the day will be a rally outside the Whittington from 12.00 until 14.00.  This is an opportunity to remind North Central London NHS that this is our hospital, not theirs, and to show our support for the workers and patients of the Whittington.

You can see a list of the events planned so far, and confirmed speakers for the rally, here: http://dwhc.org.uk/doa/

Please come along if you can.

FEAR and uncertainty over the future of Whittington Hospital could spark a mass exodus of specialist staff, union leaders have warned.

Unison’s national head of health, Karen Jennings, said proposals to close down the Whittington’s accident and emergency department had left a dark cloud over the Highgate hospital.

She said A&E staff were “afraid” and “intimidated” and that hundreds of jobs will be axed if the casualty section is closed.

Ms Jennings said: “The concern is that medical teams, consultants and surgeons are already looking for jobs elsewhere.

“They fear their future will be short-lived. I have spoken to staff and they are afraid and intimidated. They have told me they are frightened to speak out. Hundreds of jobs will go if this goes through.”

Documents released last week revealed how the Whittington is under real threat of being designated as a “local hospital” – rather than its current “general” status – without key departments such as an A&E or a maternity unit.

Ms Jennings said the job cuts would be “much worse” than at the Royal Free Hospital where 180 posts are being “disestablished”, as revealed in the New Journal a fortnight ago.

Read the rest of the article here.

They’ve also put together a video for Casualty (the Whittington song):

Lynne Featherstone (MP for Hornsey and Wood Green) is holding a public meeting on Thursday the 4th March from 8 pm, Greig City Academy, Hornsey, N8 7NU. Rachel Tyndall will be attending and it will be interesting to see if things have changed since the Archway meeting a few weeks back. There’s more information about the meeting on Lynn’s blog.

Please remember to  join our Facebook group, sign up for the march and rally on 27th February, sign the petition, follow us on Twitter and spread the word.

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.

Don’t want the UCH when my leg, it breaks,
‘Coz getting there from Archway is a real headache,
If I break my arm I can’t go to Chase Farm,
Closing the Whittington will only do more harm.

You say the NHS is safely in your hands,
But the Foundations seem to be on shifting sands,
Funding ID Cards and Trident missiles is fine,
While our healthcare plummets headlong into steep decline.

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.

What would Bevan say if he were here today,
We’re trashing his great plan, throwing it all away,
While mothers with prams are stuck in traffic jams,
All because the NHS has a business plan.

When we need urgent care we hoped that you’d be there,
But you closed at eight o’clock: it’s gone eleven out here,
It’s an emergency. That’s the point you see,
Travelling extra miles could be the death of me.

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.

Our public health is envied by the world,
We’ve got something great, it shouldn’t be disturbed,
Forget about targets and action plans,
The health of a nation is in their hands.

Please don’t sell health off to the pigs at the trough,
Making money out of every rash, outbreak and cough,
Don’t go for money men, it’s our lives in the end,
Begone the shareholders and their dividends.

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.

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.

Deliberately not copyrighted: spread it around a bit!

The day of the demo looms closer so most of our activity is focusing on making it as much of a spectacle as possible.

Please note the *new route *- Assemble at *Highbury Corner at 12*, not Highbury Fields – and it will go to the front of the hospital in Magdala Avenue. Islington Tribune have hired a bus that will go ahead of the march – regs, I’m afraid.

*Mass leafleting* at Holloway Road, by Morrisons entrance *11.30 on Saturday 20th *February.

Please leaflet wherever you can and also use the petitions in hard copy and on line. You can use this leaflet for yours and others’ windows, in addition to the fab info and posters in last week’s Islington Tribune. Look forward to seeing you at the above events – especially the demonstration!

Shirley Franklin,

Joint Chair of Defend the Whittington Hospital Coalition

People really do feel very strongly about this. Having spent much of my leafleting time for other causes seeing people take a leaflet and shortly thereafter chuck it in a bin it’s a real pleasure to see them stop in their tracks as they read DWHC leaflets, turn around and come back to find out more.

There are a couple of photos but unfortunately WordPress seems to be having a bit of a moment and won’t let me put them on the site.  I’ll pop ’em on the Facebook group instead and hopefully get ’em up here when WordPress stops being stroppy.

Thanks to all of you for your support.  We can save our A&E if we shout loudly enough and our voices aren’t even warmed up yet.

Dave Plummer,

DWHC secretary and web fella’.

DWHC joint chair Shirley Franklin was on Eddie Nestor’s  BBC Radio London this Tuesday talking about the campaign. The item starts about an hour and fourteen minutes into the programme  here (BBC iPlayer.)

The Camden New Journal have a front page story about the campaign this week, Stars Fight for Future of Hospital.

STARS of stage and screen have told how the threatened accident and emergency department at the Whittington Hospital helped their families – and how they are desperate for it not to close.

A host of famous faces have now swung behind a campaign – backed by the New Journal and our sister paper the Islington Tribune – to keep the treasured facility open.

Steve McFadden, best known as EastEnders hardman Phil Mitchell, said: “I don’t want to see the A&E close. I have used it a lot, particularly for my children as they have a fantastic children’s facility.

“The care is of a very high standard. When my daughter was a newborn baby she was ill and was admitted to the specialist children’s facility through the A&E. She stayed there for a week and the care she received was very good. The Royal Free is oversubscribed already and it’s not as if you don’t have to wait long enough to get seen.” Read more of the article Here.

The online petition reached 50 signatures this week and it looks like we’ve nearly 3000 on the paper ones.

Tomorrow’s cavalcade looks like it will be noticed! Please come along and join us at 11.30 outside The Whittington.

Please remember to join our Facebook group, sign up for the march and rally on 27th February, sign the petition, follow us on Twitter and spread the word.

Please come along and join us outside the Whittington at midday.

Defend the Whittington Hospital

It is apparent that the North Central London Health Authorities covering Camden,Islington, Haringey, Barnet and Enfield are trying to “reconfigure” services to make enormous savings. To do this they are looking at the possible closure of the Accident and Emergency (A&E) unit at the Whittington Hospital. As soon as this
became clear as a possibility, I sought and obtained a special debate in Parliament which is included in this report.

I am still unclear where the demand for huge cuts comes from, and have tabled parliamentary questions to the Secretary of State for Health on this, also included here. It is evident that any reduction in the A&E services at the Whittington will lead to a reduction in other services at the hospital, as well as job losses and risk to our community. Millions of pounds have been spent on upgrading the Whittington and I do not want any of this put at risk by short-sighted decision making.

An impressive number of people have already signed petitions which will be presented to the Department of Health in early March, and after the demonstration on February 27th when everyone in our borough will have the chance to make their voices heard.

On Monday, January 25th, hundreds of local residents attended another public meeting at the Archway Methodist Hall when the NHS London officials replied to questions that had arisen from the December meeting.

The officials from NHS London insist that no decision has been taken and that there will be public consultation on proposals which are yet to be made. Many, myself included, are very sceptical of this position and are suspicious that a model of health care for North Central London is being prepared, which will close A&E departments including the Whittington’s, and thus downgrade the hospital and centralise services of both University College Hospital and the North Middlesex. I am impressed by the enormous affection and support for our local hospital, but also for the principle of an effective available National Health Service provided by publicly employed staff.

Former Health Secretary Frank Dobson also spoke at the meeting and among other things, challenged the rapid privatisation which is being prioritised by the NHS bureaucrats, and made some serious points including one about ambulance travel times in the busy traffic of central London.

This is the Adjournment Debate referred to above, from theyworkforyou.com:

It can be also be read on the theyworkforyou.com site.

There was a big piece about the Whittington in the Camden New Journal and Islington Tribune this week:

‘If we make voices heard, we can save our Whittington Hospital’

DISMANTLING the Whittington Hospital would represent one of the most unpopular disruptions to the health system in decades, affecting the lives of tens of thousands of people.
Today, patients, residents and politicians – brought together by the Camden New Journal and our sister newspaper Islington Tribune, which began a campaign to save the under-threat A&E department in December – issue the strongest plea yet to health chiefs in a bid to make them change their mind. In essence, they have a short and simple message: “Save Our Whittington.”
Broadcaster Lord Melvyn Bragg, writer Tariq Ali and actress Michelle Collins have all swung behind the campaign.

You can read the rest on their site.

Please remember to join our Facebook group, sign up for the march and rally on 27th February, sign the petition, follow us on Twitter and spread the word.