Croydon University Hospital possible contender to lose A&E (From Croydon Guardian)

Croydon University Hospital possible contender to lose A&E and maternity departments

4:20pm Wednesday 9th January 2013 in News

Two south London Hospitals will lose their A&Es with Croydon University Hospital named as a possible contender.

The healthcare review Better Services Better Value review (BSBV) announced today that two hospitals out of four should lose their A&E and maternity departments.

Either St Helier, Epsom, Kingston or Croydon University Hospital will lose their key departments under the proposals.

An announcement was made in March last year that one hospital should lose its accident and emergency and maternity departments and after a scoring panel and financial appraisal it was recommended that St Helier should be the one to face the cuts.

However BSBV, which has already cost taxpayers £2m, is carrying out the same review again, this time including Epsom Hospital in the process.

As a result it has now recommended two hospitals lose the services.

Michael Bailey, consultant urologist and medical director for the BSBV programme, said: “I would strongly emphasise that no decisions have been made yet.

"These are clinical recommendations from local doctors and nurses only. Further work needs to be done to determine whether they would work in practice.

"We need to look at the impact on patient travel times, NHS staff numbers and what it would mean in terms of finances.

"What the Programme Board agreed was that this work will now be taken forward. Once we have agreed formal recommendations, we will consult the public later this year on whatever is proposed."