Fears For Hospital
Thursday 26th January 2012
SOUTH LONDON HEALTH CARE TRUST
STATEMENT ON QUEEN MARY’S HOSPITAL SIDCUP OSCURES REAL
INTENTIONS SAYS GMB
Board meeting discussed moving to two
sites with the loss of up to 700 jobs because of the financial
pressures the Trust faces says union.
GMB, the union for staff in the NHS responded
to a statement issued yesterday afternoon by South London
Healthcare NHS Trust. See notes to editors below for a copy on
the statement.
Gavin Davies GMB officer said “The
Trust is being deliberately obscure with this statement.
There was discussion at the Board meeting yesterday about moving to
two sites with the loss of up to 700 jobs because of the
financial pressures the Trust faces.
For the Trust to give the impression
that this is only scenario planning is to mislead the public of
their real intentions. The whole scenario for South London
Healthcare Trust will be decided at end of March
2012 because of the overspend in the Trust
finances”.
End
Contact: Gavin Davies GMB Officer 07930 983
376 or Brendan Kemp GMB Officer 07894 096 587 or GMB Press Office
07921 289 880 or 07974 251 823
Notes to editors
Statement from South London Healthcare
NHS Trust issued 25th January 2012
“Our planning with local Clinical
Commissioners and London Borough of Bexley is for Queen Mary's to
become a Health and Wellbeing campus, with a
specialist surgical centre, diagnostics and outpatients,
alongside additional community provided health services.
"As part of the requirements set
out by Monitor for our progress towards Foundation Status, we
need to detail our plans to achieve financial viability.
"This plan, which is supported by our
Trust Board, is to move forward on the basis of our existing
hospital configuration with three main hospitals including Queen
Mary's Hospital Sidcup. We believe that this is in the best
interests of our patients and hospital trust for the future. The
Monitor requirement is to also set out a plan of mitigation or
alternative approaches if the favoured plan isn't successful in its
objectives.
“This is why we have needed to work out a
scenario in which our trust is only based on two sites. We don't
support this approach nor believe that it is the most
workable.”