Protests at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust AGM
There were angry scenes at the Imperial AGM. Ross Lydall of the Evening Standard correctly recorded them in his blog of 26th September at https://rosslydall.wordpress.com/2014/09/26/charing-cross-sell-off-vital-to-avoid-disastrous-pfi-deal-insists-hospital-chairman/The most salient parts of his report are:Sir Richard, fighting back against hostility from Save Our Hospitals campaigners at Imperial’s AGM on September 24, told them: “We don’t have any choice. We have a 19th century, 18th century estate on one of our sites [St Mary’s], trying to deliver healthcare to the best possible quality for your benefit.“If we don’t do that we will be in serious, serious trouble. There will be all sorts of problems. We have to rebuild our estate for your benefit, not for mine.”There were gasps of "But why demolish Charing Cross which dates from 1974, and is just 40 years old!"Andy Slaughter, Labour MP for Hammersmith, challenged Dr Tracey Batten, Imperial’s chief executive, to guarantee that “there will be no further closures or run-down of services, particularly at Charing Cross, unless and until you can demonstrate there is not a demand for these services”. He added: “Not to do that will be incredibly irresponsible.”Dr Batten said the trust was “guided by our clinicians” in all the proposed changes. She said: “We can only change the number of beds within our facilities when these community services are established. That is the way we need to work.”
Una Hodgkins ● 3730d0 Comments