Don’t shut our units, says trust

11:18am Tuesday 1st April 2008

A HEALTH trust has responded to a consultation on how healthcare is provided in the borough.

Under the A Picture of Health proposals, the planned surgery unit at Orpington Hospital and the Alan Cumming Day Surgery Unit at the Princess Royal University Hospital, Farnborough, would close.

In January, more than 700,000 consultation documents on proposed changes at hospitals in the area were distributed to homes in the boroughs of Bromley, Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham, as well as parts of Southwark and west Kent.

However, the Bromley Hospitals' NHS Trust, which runs both hospitals, believes the two units should remain where they are and should not be transferred to Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup, as proposed in the consultation.

The planned surgery unit at Orpington Hospital opened in 2003 at a cost of £8.8m.

It provides general and oral surgery and orthopaedic treatment.

Huw Alderman, the chairman of the trust, said in a letter to the A Picture of Health management: "To close this facility five years later would not, in the view of staff and members of the public, represent good value for money."

The Alan Cumming Day Surgery Unit has six operating theatres and provides services including ophthalmology, ears, nose and throat, urology, orthopaedics and general surgery.

In his letter, Mr Alderman also stated: "The unit treats high volumes of patients quickly and efficiently and is able to undertake an extensive range of surgery on a day case basis.

"To move it elsewhere would not meet the Government criteria of more patients treated closer to home and would cost a significant amount to set up."

Susan Sulis, from the Community Care Protection Group, which campaigns on healthcare issues in Bromley borough, has welcomed the trust's response to the proposals.

She said: "We strongly support the views being put forward by the trust.

"This has obviously been carefully researched by clinicians who have put a strong case with supporting evidence for these two excellent facilities to be retained.

"This shows the trust is responding to the clinicians' views and those of the public."

A Picture of Health spokesman said: "We fully anticipated they were going to submit their thoughts.

"We note what they say and the concerns they express in their response.

"It would be inappropriate to say any more."

The consultation closes on April 11.

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