---

Health Care in London

I agree with the hon. Gentleman. That is precisely my point. He is right that Ealing hospital has 100,000 people coming through its doors to its emergency department each year. If it were not there, where would they all go? There is always a case for change, and nothing will be absolutely static, but let us work with the hospitals that we have, and let them start the business of designing new services. I see the former Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras (Frank Dobson), in his place. He was out with his colleagues and others protesting about the possible closure of the emergency department at the Whittington, which is on the same scale. We should work with hospitals in London and say that, yes, we may need to design better services, a care pathway that extends out into the community and services that are more integrated around patients instead of having a primary-secondary divide, but we should give the hospitals the opportunity to deliver those services. We have a lot of hospital sites in London, many of which are accessible to much of the population, and we can deliver services from them rather than shut them down and open polyclinics, as with the absurdity at Sidcup.