The Sydenham Assembly Coordinator's Group and the Sydenham Society have arranged a Lewisham Hospital Public Consultation meeting at Sydenham School, Dartmouth Road starting at 7.30 on Thursday 6 December. Dr Jane Fryer, Chief Medical Advisor to the Trust Special Administrator, will present the draft recommendations set out in the TSA report. I spoke to Jane after the TSA public consultation meeting on Friday and we discussed a number of the issues that have already been raised -

- PFI issues and renegotiations with the contractor
- Transport arrangements to get to Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in Woolwich given it can take an hour by bus from Lewisham to Woolwich
- A & E capacity at Kings if 37% of Lewisham residents will use Kings rather than QEH
- Maternity provision at Lewisham – 4,400 births last year – and no additional capacity in South East London
- Older people need admission for general medical conditions such as falls or respiratory problems – a big issue if they are taken to QEH in terms of distance for carers, friends and relatives to visit
- More time needed for the community to consider alternatives – 30 days to short for such a major change and there is a need more dialogue with GPs on community provision

Please come along to this public consultation meeting - the TSA will be bringing along the short video and consultation packs - so please make your views known through the feedback forms as well as asking questions, giving comments and offering any alternatives.

Dont forget everyone, the demo is this Saturday...really important to come out and show public strength of feeling.

Agreed. We can't let this happen.
Also don't forget to visit http://www.savelewishamhospital.com

Unfortunately I can't make the march due to an important prior commitment that day, but I will be doing everything else I can including responding to the consultation etc. Heidi Alexander has a list of actions on her website:

http://www.heidialexander.org.uk/?p=2444

Signing the petition takes seconds. It's probably even more important to respond individually to the consultation. This took me about an hour yesterday, using the on-line reponse form, but I did take my time over the "comments" boxes. The campaign has useful guidance for responders, which helps them to avoid what I consider are "trick" questions. See http://www.savelewishamhospital.com/how-...nd-to-tsa/
The more people respond directly, the more they have to take our opinions into account.

Thanks for that Carole - helpful.

I have read through the consultation document and it seems to me it is misleading. I am aware from the Save Lewisham Hospital website about the proposed sell-off of the hospital buildings to generate £17m, but this doesn't seem to be mentioned in the consultation document. Did they think if they just didn't mention it, no-one would notice?

The draft report itself clearly says 'Land disposals – some of the land, specifically at University Hospital Lewisham, will become surplus to NHS requirements and can therefore be sold'. Why not disclose this in the consultation document? Because they knew everyone would be against this.

The more I read about all this, the more annoyed I get.

My medical student relation is based currently at Lewisham and we're all very concerned. He was saying there's talk of a major record and travel company competing to provide CBT in the North East and a big supermarket bidding to have GP practices. Sadly sign of the times which must be resisted.
Tangentially, perhaps this should also be supported - the National Coalition for Independent Action is requesting support for its campaign to make us aware of the role of large corporate charities in saying they will assist the Government when in makes cuts in public services by being ready to fill in the gaps:
If you agree with the concern expressed in this letter prepared over the issue of big corporate charities agreeing to help the Government by stepping in where services are cut, do support by signing the letter which is on the website:


http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/governance...vatisation

http://www.independentaction.net/2012/11...#more-9500

Great turn out today on the march to save lewisham hospital !!!!Thanks to everyone!!!!

Excellent write up of the demo here
http://transpont.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/...isham.html
and here
http://crossfields.blogspot.co.uk/2012/1...ation.html

This is of interest (copied from elsewhere):

Matthew Kershaw, the special administrator and decision-maker on the fate of Lewisham A&E isn't exactly neutral in all this.(Surely not ).

Here is a load of his emails to & from outsourcers with an interest in carving up the NHS. Seem quite cosy, don't they?

http://www.hsj.co.uk/Journals/2011/09/05...ndence.pdf

If you look through them, you'll see a copy of a presentation he went to from McKinsey & Company, where they give their "vision" of the NHS in London. Amazingly, it looks not unlike what Kershaw clearly wants to do with Lewisham & beyond.

Also, he's got 'previous' as the director of a private healthcare provider:

http://company-director-check.co.uk/director/912948797

Matthew Kershaw was appointed by then Tory Health Secretary Andrew Lansley as special administrator of South London Healthcare NHS Trust. Part of his remit is making the kind of recommendations that the Health Secretary wants to hear for "restructuring" the NHS in South London. I think it's pretty clear that the default position is that the Health Secretary will go with the recommendations of their own special administrator.

No doubt Kershaw is looking forward to putting into practice the McKinsey seminar on "Simulating the new world of health & social care in London" that he attended in March 2011.

There is a rumour that hospitals in Conservative boroughs are being protected, but because Lewisham is a Labour controlled borough our hospital A&E will be closed.

Jim Dowd was able to arrange an adjournment debate on this issue yesterday evening:
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?i...-28a.343.0
Well worth a read, but here are a couple of extracts:

So we should consider ourselves told. The closure of A&E and maternity services at Lewisham is not a cut.
No doubt these proposals to provide the 'finest health care' would have been brought forward even without the disastrous PFI contracts in Greenwich and Bexley. And just because Lewisham Hospital provides a sustainable service does not mean that 2/3rds of the site should not be sold off to provide capital to fund the debts of another Trust.

Please sign the online petition on Heidi Alexander's website or go to jim downs website where there is lots of info on how to support your hospital...
Don't leave it for someone else to do!!!! We will lose our hospital!!!!
http://Www.savelewishamhospital.com

The consultation ends on 13th December. The proposal is then submitted to mr hunt to decide. We must save our hospital and our nhs!!!! By all means streamline the service but don't sell it off!!!!!

The consultation ends on 13th December. The proposal is then submitted to mr hunt to decide. We must save our hospital and our nhs!!!! By all means streamline the service but don't sell it off!!!!!
Jim dowd has applied for an extension at parliament yesterday will let you know the outcome if I find out before you

That would be Anna Soubry, Under Secretary of State at DoH. Contactable at http://twitter.com/Anna_SoubryMP

A pretty shameful piece of spin. Just remember when you stuck on a bus to Woolwich that it's the "finest health care" you will receive when the traffic clears.

This post was last modified: 29-11-2012 10:52 PM by BarCar.

If only it was only 'a bus'.
The simplest journey to Woolwich by public transport involves 2 buses, often with a 15 min walk from a Ha Ha Rd(!). Ha Ha indeed.

Some key routes suggested by transport for london involve a bus, BR, underground and DLR. No planes tho.
With journey times of an hour if the connections work means it is just inaccessible to those without a car. Especially in an emergency.

PLEASE, everyone, COMPLETE the consultation document -

Consulation Document here

using the advice here if you want to make it super quick (and avoid ploughing through all the reading they link you to (to try and put you off, I imagine)

Quick instructions here

Cynically, I would say that the consultation document has been made overly complicated to avoid people completing it.

A lot of people are questioning the whole consultation process.

Someone I know who went to one of the consultation focus groups said the TSA person said ''well of course these focus groups are self-selecting anyway, you're only going to get people here who oppose the proposals' thereby seeming to dismiss everything that was being said.

I tried to fill in the document but really found it painfully confusing and laborious to complete. I am sorry to confess that I gave up half way in.
I will try again when I'm less exhausted after a day at work.