Responding to proposals on South London Healthcare Trust, the chief executive of think tank 2020health Julia Manning said:
“Matthew Kershaw and Dr Jane Fryer have proposed a realistic plan for the future arrangement of services in south east London. South London Healthcare Trust, which runs three hospitals was the first ever trust to be put on an “unsustainable providers regime” because it was losing over £1m a week.
“There are not just financial but safety and quality reasons for reconfiguration and it is really important that the public understand this. We should stop talking about losing local services as this can seem entirely negative but start talking about providing better quality services using up to date models of care supported by new technologies. The public do understand that in the 21st century high quality services cannot be provided everywhere but what they should not be tolerating is second-rate care.
“The biggest changes will be Lewisham’s A&E becoming an urgent care centre as Queen Elizabeth, Woolwich and Lewisham NHS Trust merge, and Princess Royal in Bromley being dissolved into Kings College Hospital.
“Local MPs need to take the responsible path and support these proposals in the basis of sustainability and quality. Tough decisions have been postponed for too long and this part of the NHS is haemorrhaging tax-payers money. This is a real opportunity to create efficiency through the re-shaping of services.”
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