SIDCUP: Health campaigner claims A&E service cannot cope without Queen Mary's (From News Shopper)

SIDCUP: Health campaigner claims A&E service cannot cope without Queen Mary's

11:07am Thursday 25th February 2010 in

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ACCIDENT and emergency services across Bexley, Bromley and Greenwich in recent days have been “dangerous and deadly” claims a health campaigner.

John Hemming-Clark, leader of Independents to Save Queen Mary’s Hospital, claims the situation at Queen Mary’s Sidcup A&E department has been “dire and totally unacceptable” as staff struggled to cope with emergencies diverted from other hospitals.

When A&E at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRU), Farnborough, closed last Thursday because of a norovirus outbreak, ambulances diverted to Queen Mary’s where the A&E remained open all night.

Staff from Farnborough had to be drafted in to help.

Mr Hemming-Clark claims on Monday, A&E at Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), Woolwich, was so overrun it had ambulances queuing up, so again patients were diverted to Queen Mary’s.

He claims at one point, five stretchered patients were lined up in Queen Mary’s corridors.

Under A Picture of Health plans, Sidcup’s A&E will close by the end of this year, but Mr Hemming-Clark claims the PRU and QEH will not be able to cope.

He said: “When it closes, the events of the past few days prove deaths will result.”

Mr Hemming-Clark says if that happens, his party will take legal action against the South London Healthcare Trust “for a dereliction in its duty of care towards its patients”.

The trust said PRU patients were diverted to a variety of other A&Es including Sidcup.

It says by the time Queen Mary’s A&E closes, the two emergency departments at PRU and QEH will have been expanded to cope with the extra patients.

Mr Hemming-Clark also claims Sidcup’s A&E does not close at 8pm as advertised, but can be open as late as 10pm.

When his wife’s cut hand was too serious to be treated at Queen Mary’s urgent care centre at 9.30pm, they expected to be sent to the PRU.

Instead, Mr Hemming-Clark said: “The nurse announced we could walk next door to the A&E unit.

He said:“When I reminded her it had shut at 8pm, she replied that was only for ambulances.”

Sidcup’s A&E was closed at night last September.

A spokesman said: “"Patients who arrive in the A&E department at Queen Mary's up until 8pm can require treatment for up to a few hours, so it remains staffed to ensure that everyone is treated safely.

“If someone arrives during this time who needs urgent attention or has an injury which can be dealt with quickly and we have the capacity, we would make the decision on an ad hoc basis in the best interests of the patient. "