Sutton taxpayers will pay hundreds of thousands of pounds funding the review proposing to close St Helier hospital’s accident and emergency and maternity departments, it has emerged.
Sutton’s leading GPs have to agree with others in south west London how much they will contribute to continue funding the Better Services Better Value (BSBV) review - which is proposing to downgrade St Helier to a ‘local hospital’ with only basic services such as blood tests and treatment for chest infections.
They are due to meet today to discuss whether they support the proposals to axe the A&E and maternity departments - and downgrade St Helier to a local hospital.
The GPs, known as Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG), have already agreed £6m will pay for the review up until the end of a three month consultation.
It is understood that this could mean Sutton CCG will contribute up to £850,000 of public money to fund the review proposing frontline closures in its own borough.
Campaigners against the cuts to St Helier hospital are furious that thousands of pounds will continue to be spent on BSBV which they have labelled as "flawed", based on contested assumptions and poor data.
Tom Brake the MP for Carshalton and Wallington said: "Spending extra money on BSBV now is throwing good money after bad.
"There’s no desire to complete this review process it is clear that from the outset St Helier has been a huge disadvantage in this review and the high quality of care that it provides has been disregarded.
"It is now time to pull the plug on the whole process."
Councillor Mary Burstow the chair of the health and well being scrutiny committee said: "That money would pay for 28 extra nurses on £31,000 a year.
"I think my biggest concern is they are not listening to people and not making any real effort to listen to people either."
In the first real test of the government’s policy, putting GPs in charge of local healthcare, the seven Clinical Commissioning Groups in the region will decide this month whether they support the proposals which will then be subject to a 12 week public consultation.
If one CCG does not approve the proposals then the review will not be able to go ahead in its current form.
Sutton CCG is expected to make its decision today in public at 1pm in the St Bedes Conference Centre, next to St Raphael's Hospice in North Cheam.
A spokesperson for BSBV said: "All of the CCG plans for 2013/14 recognise BSBV as a fundamental priority.
"Funding for this year has been agreed. The have agreed a funding formula so that each CCG pays an agreed amount per head of their population.
"The contribution of NHS England is still under discussion, so the exact amount paid by each CCG is still to be finalised."
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