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Health Care in London

I am very mindful that others wish to speak, so I shall be brief. The Minister constantly refers to the way in which these are local initiatives, but it has been clear in the debates from the four quarters of London that a single blueprint is being pursued on these proposals. I have a great deal of admiration for the hon. Members for Kingston and Surbiton (Mr. Davey) and for Richmond Park (Susan Kramer) because of how they have ensured that this debate has the highest profile. However, I fear that we will pass round the black spot as it were, on this proposal because if they are successful in defending services at Kingston hospital, somewhere else in the sector will lose out. I have been impressed, in a way, with how NHS officials have spoken to me in dramatic terms, saying that I will kill or disable people if I oppose these proposals. However, I beg to differ, particularly as regards the impact on Croydon. Croydon Members must remember that Croydon is a very ethnically diverse community and that more than 13 per cent. of our constituents are over 65, which is a higher proportion than the London average. We must remember that Croydon has a large black and minority ethnic community, which faces particular health issues to do with diabetes and stroke. Reference has been made to the concentration of stroke resources at St. George's hospital, which we campaigned against in Croydon. With this proposal we again face the prospect of the removal of a great deal of specialisms from hospitals such as Mayday university hospital. This sort of downgrading, which is also proposed for St. Helier and Kingston hospitals, means that that they will become "local" hospitals. In essence, this proposal will turn Mayday university hospital into what the Croydon general was: it will become, in effect, a place for respite and recovery. When I said that this is a bit like having a university where the research professors have been sent 10 miles down the road, I was told that I need not worry because the consultants would visit one day a week. That was not a terribly reassuring briefing to receive on how these things will work. Obviously one must be cautious about what one discusses in terms of the secret documents that we were allowed to see. The document given to me and to the Liberal Democrat Members in south-west London shows clearly a proposal whereby""58 per cent. of A and E activity"" would be moved from hospitals in south-west London. That, along with the ambition to move more than 60 per cent. of current hospital out-patient appointments and the other drawing of patients away from GP surgeries into polyclinics, is disturbing. I wish to conclude by giving an example of how difficult it will be to deliver on some of the savings that are in this secret document. We are talking about savings of about 33 per cent. I am concerned that an incoming Government, desperate to deliver financial savings in a Budget proposed within 50 days, might reach for this document and say, "Yes, we can deliver." That delivery will not happen, and I shall give hon. Members the Croydon example to show why. Croydon has two polyclinics, one of which is to be found in the constituency of the hon. Member for Croydon, South (Richard Ottaway). He has been vehement in expressing his concern about the redevelopment of Purley hospital, which was promised in 2001. He raised the issue again and received reassurances from the Conservative Front-Bench team about it today. It has taken eight or nine years to get nowhere on that hospital, and that is an example of how polyclinic savings will not be delivered, because the place has just not been built yet. As for my constituency, people will have to go to a polyclinic in the centre of Croydon, sited on a slip road off a flyover. Let us try to imagine people having to go there in an emergency. They are not going to go on a bus. It will not be easy to deliver a baby on a slip road off a flyover. If there is a prospect of people being able to park, they will be competing in a town centre with residents who are already desperately competing for parking spaces. These are practical examples of how NHS officials—people who are making the decisions, and not democratically—have no understanding or sense of the real practicality of delivery. The final point I wish to make—I apologise to hon. Members for taking my allocated six minutes—is that this decision should be made during the general election campaign; it should not be postponed in the way that the Conservative motion surprisingly suggested or in the way in which the Labour Government and NHS officials wish. This decision should be made during a general election—when patients have real influence on the debate and on the decisions that will be made—rather than their being made by faceless NHS officials.