North London residents protest against hospital closures (From Haringey Independent)

North London residents protest against hospital closures

5:21pm Saturday 27th February 2010 in

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HUNDREDS of people marched through the streets of north London this afternoon demanding an end to proposed cuts in hospital services.

Residents young and old joined with health activists, politicians, and unionists to send a message to NHS London and to the government - “leave our hospitals alone”.

The protest's main focus was the future of the Whittington Hospital, where A&E, maternity and childrens services are believed to be under threat of being cut according to leaked plans put together by health chiefs.

Lynne Featherstone, MP for Wood Green and Hornsey, told the packed crowd outside the hospital, in Magdala Avenue: “Whenever I say to someone there are proposals to close A&E at the Whittington, they say it's madness.

“They are moving us around on pieces of paper, but it has nothing to do with real people's lives.

“The clue is in the title – emergency. Keep it local, that's absolutely the answer.”

Throngs of people marched from Highbury Corner along Holloway Road to the Whittington Hospital, uniting under a common banner of supporting the retention of hospital services across north London.

With A&E services already set to be down graded at Chase Farm Hospital, there are fears plans are being formulated for further reduction of services at either Barnet Hospital or North Middlesex Hospital.

Enfield Councillor Kate Wilkinson (Chase), who was elected on a platform of saving Chase Farm Hospital, said: “All these hospitals are under threat.

“It is vital that everybody come together to show that we will not accept frontline services being removed.

“It would have a devastating effect on the local community. If you take away the services in one area it will have a knock on effect on other areas.”

Cllr Wilkinson added that communities across north London need to stand united and not be divide in trying to protect their own local services.

Labour MP David Lammy, former Health Secretary Frank Dobson, and health workers from some of the capital's hospitals were among the speakers at the rally, held outside the doors of the Whittington.

Alison Campbell, a mother of two from Stroud Green, had come down to support the protest, and said: “The Whittington is close to us, If A&E was further away I've no idea where else we would have to go.

“It's especially important for children – if they fall or are hurt, we have got to be able to take them somewhere quickly.”

Unions, health groups, and the Defend Whittington Hospital Coalition, which organised today's protest, are pressing for a pan-London approach to protecting hospital services in the capital.