I've been to Woolwich only a few times from FH and it was a long journey by car at all times of the day and evening. The prospect of having to get there by bus is even more daunting. I wouldnt know where to start. We would just go to Kings- like a lot of people probably would putting more pressure on their services. Yet no one seems to have factored in that a lot of people in this area don't see Woolwich as within their mental map of their home territory and would find other places to go instead. Woolwich just seems too suburban, too alien, and too far away and too difficult to get to unless you have family there and ' bond' with the area. Maps tell you nothing about how people relate to and use services in particular areas and distance isnt the most relevant thing on its own.

I have three young children and have had several trips to both Lewisham and Kings A and E by ambulance and sometimes car , mostly in the middle of the night and had to make our way back in the early hours of the morning both by bus and cab. If you've ever had to drive with a sick feverish screaming child with a plastic jewellery bead stuck up her nose , you wouldn't fancy the extended trip to Woolwich along some rather difficult and isolated roads where it might be tricky to pull over and tend to a vomiting child.

I have been unhappy with the diagnoses of my children by out of hours GPs and instead taken them to A and E. One occasion was when my two week old was having difficulty breathing and feeding and needed urgent care ; our journey was made just in time before the roads were closed due to snow;she was intubated and put on a drip due to severe dehydration and poor oxygen intake. The second was when a serious undisgnosed urine infection left my 10 month old in pain, and with potential kidney damage. It was a visit to A and E on my hunch that probably saved her kidneys; they rapidly diagnosed and treated her and moved her onto a wards for two nights, and we had daily follow up trips for several days afterwards with sample bottles being sent in by taxi for monitoring, as i had no car at that time. This couldn't have been done had we been dependent on Woolwich for our emergency treatment.

Children's conditions can sink so rapidly that to increase the journey time can only spell trouble as it may mean that parents just don't err on the side of caution and visit A and E. Our winter experience was extremely scary and I was so glad that we didnt have to drive through snow and ice to Woolwich as I doubt if we'd have got there before being snowed in.