3908 x 2513 px | 33,1 x 21,3 cm | 13 x 8,4 inches | 300dpi
Aufnahmedatum:
23. Januar 2013
Ort:
Hilly Fields Park, Lewisham, London
Weitere Informationen:
A snowman advertising the protest march to help save Lewisham Hospital in the latest round of Government NHS cuts. In July, Tory Health Minister Andrew Lansley MP hand-picked a ‘special administrator’ to take over South London Healthcare Trust. The administrator, Matthew Kershaw, has completed a draft report that recommends Lewisham Hospital close their A&E. And their children’s wards, critical care, emergency and complex surgery units, and perhaps the maternity services. He then wants to sell off Lewisham Hospital’s empty buildings for £17million, only £5million less than this year’s A&E refurb. (see explanation of the report). Lewisham Hospital is not part of South London Healthcare, where the adminsitrator was appointed. The administrator believes closing Lewisham A&E will force patients through the doors of the heavily indebted Queen Elizabeth Hospital, thus increasing its income. However, this trick has already been performed once, when Queen Mary’s Sidcup A&E was closed 2 years ago, and currently up to 1 in 5 patients wait over 4 hours for treatment in Queen Elizabeth A&E. It will overwhelm the indebted Queen Elizabeth Hospital, at a time when the administrator also recommends it makes £100million of further cuts. Lewisham residents, MPs, the mayor and hospital workers across both trusts have come together to support a campaign group to oppose the recommendations- Save Lewisham A&E. Lewisham residents don’t want to be punished for the political failures of recent years and they feel the administrator process has been abused to attack the NHS- which is why the administrator exceeded his jurisdiction at South London Healthcare and swung the axe at nearby Lewisham. If the newly-refurbished Lewisham A&E closes, the boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich and Bexley (population 750, 000) will have 1 accident and emergency to share. Lewisham has the lowest male life expectancy in London.
