16 May (Part 2) - Sidcup Hospital. They’d rather you forgot it
You
can blame Labour’s PFI scheme if you like but there is little doubt that it was
the Conservatives who promised to save Sidcup’s Queen Mary’s Hospital if they
were elected in 2010 and when they were, promptly closed a lot of it.
The Maternity Unit looks like it is about to be demolished. Funny that all the
pictures of pre-election protesting Bexley
councillors seem to have disappeared from the web.
In the 2010 General Election John Hemming-Clark stood on a ‘save the hospital’
ticket and got nowhere. James Brokenshire (Conservative) 24,625 votes. John Hemming-Clark 393 votes.
Bexley people believed the Conservatives, maybe they will again, too many are happy so long as their bin gets emptied on time
and are uninterested in the wide picture. John H-C has given up his electoral
ambitions. This year his website merely says ‘Vote UKIP’.
In case anyone is in any doubt, Sidcup Hospital’s A&E was
temporarily closed on 24th November 2010, not “under the previous Government”. Total closure was
confirmed by Andrew Lansley (Conservative Health Secretary) in February 2011.
At the time Bexley was the only London borough not to have an Accident &
Emergency facility and thanks to the successful campaign in Lewisham, that remains the case.
News Shopper report on closure.
Relevant previous blog entry.