Thank you to everyone attending the photo shoot.
Last night at full Council I raised 5 issues listed at the end of this blog, I was knocked back on everyone. The most important was the first when I asked Cllr Athwal the Leader of Redbridge Council to write to Mr Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health asking him to revoke the 2011 Government decision to close King George A&E.
Cllr Athwal refused to do this, which is baffling as the quotes below from Hansard in 2017 show how crucial the 2011 decision is.
I have asked Mike Gapes MP to seek Matt Hancock revoke the 2011 decision.
The 2011 decision was used as the reason for the failed 2018 £49M closure bid.
Quotes follow
Wes Streeting MP
I
congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate. In my
capacity as a Labour councillor in the London Borough of
Redbridge, I currently chair a cross-party working group on the
future of A&E provision in north-east London. One frustrating
thing is that all the local health leads in the area are working to a
decision made by a previous Secretary of State. That ministerial
decision still stands and the leads have to work towards it. They do
not believe that is achievable or clinically sound. Yet, they point
to the Secretary of State when pressed to abandon the plans. I hope
that the Minister might be able to reverse that ministerial decision
and remove the sword of Damocles from our A&E department.
Mike Gapes MP
I am grateful for
that intervention as it saves me from making the same point. During
the election campaign, the Secretary of State went to my hon.
Friend’s constituency for a private Conservative party function. He
was asked by the local paper, the Ilford Recorder,
about the plans to close the A&E at King George Hospital. He said
that there were no plans to close it in the “foreseeable future”.
Now, I do not know how big the crystal ball is. I do not know what
kind of telescope the Secretary of State has and which end he is
looking through. The fact is that “foreseeable” does not
necessarily mean that the A&E will not close in 2019. If it is
not going to close in the near future or even in the medium term, why
not lift the cloud of uncertainty over the staff and over the
planning process? Then we could have a serious look at the draft
sustainability and transformation plan for north-east London, which
is partly predicated on the closure of A&E at King George
Hospital. (my emphasis)
My question to the Leader was
“Can the Leader agree to help the Save King George A&E and Extend it instead campaign by taking the following actions:
1- write to Mr Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health asking him to revoke the 2011 Government decision to close King George A&E;
2 - write to BHRUT to request they provide a universal ambulatory care service at King George:
3 - live stream this meeting from my phone on the Council Facebook page to amplify the campaign to extend King George Hospital during the petition debate on King George?”
All three were refused, my supplementary question to ask that the banner be displayed at the Town Hall was refused
My request that my petition on the partial transformation of King George and Queens to prepare for the King George A&E closure as revealed in the £49M closure plan here http://savekinggeorgehospital.blogspot.com/2019/06/speech-for-council-to-present-petition.html should be referred to Health Scrutiny was refused too.
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