Another nail in the Boly's coffin?

11.49.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 5th Jun 2008

Bolingbroke Hospital: closed to A+E admissions

We know that the local NHS bureaucrats don't like the Bolingbroke hospital, in their search for prestige new building projects. But many local people have rallied to its cause, with perhaps 17,000 signing petitions in its support. The Battersea Society has done a worthy job of representing local people's interests against the the various bureaucratic threats that keep confronting us. So imagine the shock of many of the Society's members when its latest newsletter came out in favour of a site in Grant Road for a new primary care facility, instead of the Boly. And this was the substance of the Society's response to Wandsworth PCT's consultation on future health services in Battersea & North Wandsworth.

"I think the Battersea Society's approach to this is very disappointing," says local Liberal Democrat Chair Matthew Green. "On something as controversial as this, they should have consulted their membership more widely. The Society should be probing and challenging the PCT's self-serving logic, not endorsing it. The PCT's analysis appears incomplete, and its constant reference to "deprived areas" is insulting both to the residents of Latchmere and Queenstown wards, and to those elsewhere. The NHS's services should be available to everybody on the basis of need, without preferences for particular social classes. The attitude seems to be that rich people should pay their taxes and go private. If the people of Latchmere have inadequate services, that is reason enough for extra investment there, without this poisonous New Labour talk. The New Labour campaign against the Boly, promoted by NHS bureaucrats, just because it is located in a relatively posh area has caused a lot of anger, not least amongst the less well off people in Northcote ward and nearby."

The Liberal Democrats strongly support Wandsworth PCT's strategy of locating more services in Battersea, so that people don't have to go so often to St George's in Tooting or other major hospitals outside the area. In fact we don't think they go far enough, and that the case for a community hospital has not been properly explored. "The Boly is attractive as a site because the NHS already owns it, a point that doesn't come into the PCT's financial analysis. This makes it good value for money. It's location in a relatively quiet area makes access by car easier than the other sites, though bus services should be improved. We are not persuaded that the PCT's analysis is complete." says Matthew Green.