'Consultation' on Fate of Bolingbroke

5.36.50pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 10th May 2007

Alice Humphreys with local resident Richard Jones at the Bolingbroke entrance.

On 19th April I attended a consultation meeting about the future of Bolingbroke Hospital. The meeting was delivered by St. George's Healthcare NHS Trust. There were approximately 35 people there, most of whom were local residents.

The meeting began with a presentation by a representative of the Trust. He said that Bolingbroke receives about 23,700 patients each year. He listed the services that the hospital provides: an outpatient clinic, breast screening, a local GP out of hours service, dental care for adults with special needs, and foot-care services.

The presentation then outlined the following reasons for closing the hospital:

1) The building is very old, inflexible, not accessible and difficult to clean and secure;

2) Only 20% of the building is in use;

3) There has been a steady decline in outpatient attendances at the hospital; and

4) It would cost £6 million to modernise its current services and £16 million to renovate the building into a fully-functioning hospital.

The following four options were offered for the future of Bolingbroke, none of which are to keep the hospital open:

1) Move Bolingbroke's services to St John's Hill Therapy Centre;

2) Move some of the services to St John's and some to Queen Mary's, Roehampton;

3) Move most services to St. George's Hospital, Tooting;

4) Move some services to St. George's and some to St. John's.

The advantages and disadvantages of the four options were described, with no mention of the advantages of keeping Bolingbroke and developing its services. The representative from the Trust who was giving the presentation said that the Trust's preference is option 1 - to close Bolingbroke and re-locate its services to St. John's. He went on to say that although the Trust's consultation period ends on 14 May, in June Wandsworth's Primary Care Trust will begin a 3 month consultation on long-term health plans for Battersea.

After the presentation, questions were taken from the floor. Bewilderment and annoyance were expressed at the consultation process being split into two. Current and former employees at Bolingbroke voiced their outrage at a decline in outpatient attendances being a reason to close Bolingbroke. They insisted that this decline was produced by patients being referred to other hospitals.

During his presentation the Trust's representative repeatedly said that a re-location of Bolingbroke's services would not result in their quality or quantity declining. This was the crux of his defence of closing the hospital. However, when answering a question, he said that the services and staff would "broadly" stay the same, implying that they would in fact be cut. This is no surprise considering the large financial deficit that the Trust currently has. I asked the representative to clarify whether and to what extent services would be cut. A recent document from the Trust answered my question with an unconvincing denial that services would be lost, and an acceptance that non-clinical staff might be. I pointed out at the meeting that with a growing population Battersea needs Bolingbroke's services to be invested in, not re-located, and certainly not cut.

The consultation document and the recent document referred to above can be read online, and you can submit your views on the issue at www.wandsworth.nhs.uk/bolingbroke. Please do so.

Alice Humphreys