Sir, We write on behalf of more than 1,000 doctors, including 450 consultants and professors at St Bartholomew’s and the Royal London hospitals and medical school, to call on the Prime Minister to rescue plans for the redevelopment of the hospitals which provide heart and cancer services for the people of East London.
With contracts ready to be signed, we are alarmed that the Department of Health has commissioned a last-minute and fundamental review, which could threaten the development scheme to deliver these essential clinical services and threaten the future of the renowned trauma centre that cared for 208 victims of the July 7 bombings.
By 2015 the two hospitals will be serving a population the size of Wales. This will include 750,000 residents in Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Newham — three of the most deprived boroughs in London with higher than average incidence of disease.
These hospitals have some of the best clinical outcomes for the treatment of cancer and heart disease. They serve Europe’s most ethnically diverse population. The loss of any of these services would be damaging to the health of this vulnerable population and irretrievably damage our medical school.
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The redeveloped hospitals will also be a centrepiece of the Government’s successful bid for staging the Olympics in 2012. Without these hospitals, London’s ability to cope with another serious terrorist incident must be in doubt.
We utterly reject suggestions of overcapacity in the provision of heart and cancer services. Indeed, independent public health specialists believe that with the Thames Gateway development, even the current plans may be insufficient.
The Prime Minister and his Government came to power committed to saving the NHS. He gave a personal commitment to the redevelopment in 1998, reversing years of indecision.
It would be a cruel injustice to the population of East London if 13 years of planning for the new hospitals were ended by the collapse of the scheme.
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DUNCAN DYMOND
Consultant Cardiologist
ANDREW LISTER
Professor of Oncology
MARTIN RAFTERY
Clinical Director
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DAVID RAMPTON
Professor and Chairman of Medical Council
RAKESH UPPAL
Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon
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SIR NICHOLAS WRIGHT
Warden, St Bartholomew’s and the London School of Medicine