---

Health Care in London

I particularly appreciate this opportunity to speak in the debate in defence of my local hospital, Kingston hospital. I am joined in my campaign by my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Mr. Davey). We first learned of the risk to the hospital's accident and emergency and maternity departments towards the end of last year. We told NHS officials that we thought the plans were outrageous. Kingston's maternity department deals with nearly 6,000 births a year, and the A and E unit treats more than 100,000 patients a year. It is therefore busier than almost any other hospital that has been mentioned. We agreed that we would hold back from going public with our campaign until the documents had been published. However, we were told in January that the documents would be withheld until after the general election, so we went public with our campaign anyway. I have heard about cross-party campaigns in every corner of London, but I am incredibly sad to say that south-west London is the exception, and accusations of scaremongering have been levelled against my hon. Friend and me today. Those who did so are well aware, however, that, on 8 February, we put into the public arena the document that was leaked to us confirming everything that we had said about the threats to Kingston hospital. That document—the "South-West London Strategic Plan: private and confidential: final draft"—is now on our website. It lists the 18 options under consideration, nearly all of which, unfortunately, involve the loss of services at Kingston hospital. Those hon. Members will also be entirely aware that, on 24 February, Kingston's health overview panel held a five-hour scrutiny meeting, at which NHS representatives were questioned for almost the entire time. I will read the local newspaper's report of that meeting. It said:""NHS bosses have bowed to public and media pressure and confirmed the closure of Kingston Hospital's accident and emergency and maternity units is being considered as part of a review of services in the area."" That is from our very reliable Richmond and Twickenham Times. We have also put into the public arena today, through our website, the presentation to NHS Kingston's joint board and professional executive committee meeting, dated 15 January. That document unfortunately shows the situation to be even worse, involving a greater loss of elective surgery than we had feared. I am expecting a sincere—and, I hope, written—apology from those on the other Benches. More than anything, however, I am here to ask for the disclosure of information. My local residents want to be part of this conversation in detail. They want to understand all the facts and issues now, when they can be part of the fundamental discussion, and not when they have been told that they can find out about them. At that point, three final options will be presented to them, and there will be a 12-week formal consultation, which can have an impact only at the edges. We have put freedom of information requests in place, but the response to all of them was, "You are asking for too much information." But there is no such thing as too much information for the public, who need to be able to participate and make decisions. Although I intend to pursue those FOIs, let me show how bad things are by reading from the front of the leaked document, now on the website:""The document contains extensive material that is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. It should not be released under the Act without prior consultation with the NHS in South West London."" Even FOIs will not obtain the full range of information. I am incredibly sad to say that the Conservatives do not join us in the wish for full information. The hon. Member for Hemel Hempstead (Mike Penning) declared in the debate of 8 February that he would not have put into the arena the information that we have, which I find shocking. On 24 February, after five hours of questioning the NHS, Liberal Democrat councillors at Kingston council moved a resolution. It said that since the panel was now aware of the first of the documents, the south-west London strategic plan, it called""upon NHS London to publish this document immediately."" Every Conservative councillor present voted against that resolution. I am afraid that we are in a battle for information by ourselves. The House will be interested to know that my Conservative opponent joined in a letter with my Labour opponent and the Green, all saying that our campaign had been invented and amounted to scaremongering. I envy the many others who have cross-party co-operation because that is what people in our area deserve and should have. I turn to the Government and ask them to provide the information so that our local people can be fully engaged and involved in absolutely key and critical decisions at a time when decisions should be flexible and are formulated. I also turn to the Conservatives and ask why they are singling out south-west London as place for which they do not demand information and why they will not join in the defence of the hospital, because it is time that they did, for the sake of all our constituents.