Sometimes I get angry
I’m angry about the proposed closure of Lewisham A&E. It’s my local one, see. My neighbours are angry, too. And the greengrocer. And the bloke in the corner shop. And my parents, because I live near where I grew up and it’s also their local one. Both my parents are chronically ill, so they take an interest in hospitals, because they have to.
What I’ve been asking myself is, do I oppose the closure on the right grounds? Do I genuinely believe that the changes would be bad for the NHS in London, or do I just like the idea that if I had to go to A&E, it would be somewhere familiar? After all, no-one complains when specialist care has to be further away, so why should generalist provision be different?
What I’ve decided is that this particular comparison is not at all helpful. If I had a head injury, of course I’d want to be surrounded by the best possible equipment and facilities, and if that meant being further from my visitors then so be it. If I didn’t have a head injury (or a stroke or a heart attack), however, then that wouldn’t be relevant. Why am I being offered something irrelevant, when what I asked for was an explanation of the changes proposed to my healthcare?
Also – and this is important – I don’t really understand the difference between an A&E and an Urgent Care Centre (the proposed replacement). I don’t understand it, even though I’m interested in it, and I’m educated and have the internet at home and English is my first language. I’ll hazard a guess that the difference is not generally well understood around the Lewisham area. People need to know what healthcare facilities they have and where they are supposed to go in an emergency.
The Maternity unit also faces closure. There would still be a birth centre, but some mothers would have to be transferred to another hospital during complicated births. No-one seems to be able to explain how that is supposed to be safe, for the woman or for the baby.
Situations like this are imminent around the country; there are 50 or 60 other trusts in financial hot water. It seems that, for various reasons (but basically because we signed a load of bad PFIs and don’t collect taxes very well), we can’t afford to run the NHS properly at the moment. I don’t envy Mr Hunt one little bit; it’s a hell of a situation to be in. I don’t know what the best solution is. I’m just certain it can’t be this one. We need to keep thinking.
(pic: Protesters at the front of the march carry the “Save Lewisham A&E Banner”. Lautel Okhio)