London Evening Standard/London
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt pressed ahead with plans to downgrade Lewisham Hospital despite the “critical” concerns of the NHS’s medical director, it was revealed.
Professor Sir Bruce Keogh warned him that cutting the accident and emergency and maternity departments could lead to major problems at neighbouring hospitals required to treat patients diverted from Lewisham.
It comes as Hunt was yesterday under fire for claiming in Parliament that the NHS chief told him the proposals “could save up to 100 lives every year” — a claim never made in his report.
Sir Bruce, who was asked by Hunt to review the proposed axing of Lewisham’s casualty and maternity wards prior to a final decision last week, backed the changes but told the health secretary that their timing “will be critical”.
Lewisham handles 110,000 A&E patients and 4,400 births a year. Many of its patients are expected to divert to King’s College or to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich. This will result in both handling more than 8,000 births a year and having to “double-staff” the units.
Campaigners and MPs had already complained that hospitals including King’s College, in Denmark Hill, had been forced to turn away expectant mothers on 37 occasions in 18 months because their maternity wards were full.
Sir Bruce said there was a need to “ensure there is no risk to patients by inadvertent underprovision at hospitals receiving displaced Lewisham activity”, particularly “acute medical emergencies”.
Sir Bruce told Hunt that it was “illogical” to transfer all A&E patients elsewhere — prompting the health secretary to retain a downgraded casualty unit at the hospital able to deal with about 80,000 of the less serious cases Lewisham handles each year.