Health bosses calm fears over hospital cuts (From Croydon Guardian)

Health bosses calm fears over Croydon University Hospital cuts

12:20pm Thursday 17th January 2013 in News

Hospital bosses have allayed fears Croydon University Hospital could lose key departments.

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

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

But key figures in NHS South London and Croydon Council have played down the chance that Croydon could be one of the unlucky two.

Croydon's Hospital avoided the cuts in a similar review last year.

Mike Bell, interim chairman at the hospital, said: “I don’t see our A&E and maternity unit as under threat. We are not Lewisham, we are Croydon.

"The improvements we need to bring about here are not dependent on BSBV we have to move forward with them anyway.”

Councillor Margaret Mead, cabinet member for Adult services and health, said it would be unthinkable to lose some of the key health services in Croydon.

"What we want is the best services for our residents and that means we need to have a hospital in Croydon with all its services."

She said there would be a lot of opposition to the cuts from residents and the council.

Dominic Conlin, Director of Strategy at Croydon Health Services said the borough scored highly in the last review.

He said: "While we must not forget that the parameters and the range of options have now changed in this review, much of the impact of the original analysis will still stand."