Epsom Hospital NOT Closing

Local residents have been in touch with us after seeing the RA Residents' Party campaigning in Epsom High Street to "save Epsom Hospital" and giving the public the impression that it might be closing, in order to get support for a petition. As far as we are aware, none of the three options on the table at the moment involves closing Epsom General Hospital.

All the options would involve demerging Epsom and St Helier to ensure the future of a general hospital in Epsom. One would make Epsom a Foundation Trust in its own right, which might involve an element of charitable support. A second option would be to merge with an existing Foundation Trust. The third would be to link with another hospital to form a new Foundation Trust.

Residents Association councillors refused for many years to acknowledge that it had any role to play in what was happening with regard to Epsom Hospital. It briefly raised its head above the parapet when things became critical a few years ago. Now, because of borough elections in three months' time, they seem to be clutching at straws to find a popular campaign that will deflect criticism away from their policies of targeting vulnerable people over the past 12 months, such as closing public toilets and charging Blue Badge holders for parking.

What makes it utterly disgraceful is that there is a need for ALL parties to get together and campaign to ensure that as and when control of the local NHS passes to our local GPs, they will wish to retain a full range of acute services at Epsom. The RA should be urging residents to emphasise to their GPs that this is what local people want, instead of embarking upon a cynical strategy to scare people into signing a petition which frankly, at the moment, is irrelevant.

The photograph shows Cllr Jonathan Lees on the Epsom Hospital march a few years ago.