Milford Hospital closure proposal to be "withdrawn" (South West Surrey Liberal Democrats)

South West Surrey Liberal Democrats <info@swsurreylibdems.org.uk>

Milford Hospital closure proposal to be "withdrawn"

November 12, 2004 5:04 PM

Guildford and Waverley Primary Care Trust (PCT) will back down from their plan to close Milford Hospital and relocate services to the Royal Surrey and Farnham Hospital on April 1st next year.

Simon Cordon on Save Milford Hospital March

Simon Cordon has been fighting to save Milford Hospital.

That's the confident prediction of Simon Cordon, the Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate, who has been fighting to save the hospital.

Simon says that he expects the PCT Board, at their meeting on November 18th, to be asked to think again about Milford Hospital. The PCT will acknowledge, he says, that the current closure plan is unworkable and a range of alternative options has to be examined.

"The PCT will probably avoid using the word 'withdrawn' but that is what it will amount to", said Simon. "We have argued for the past few months that the closure plan did not make sense, financially as well as clinically. I believe the PCT has reached the point where they have to accept these arguments".

In September Simon wrote to 10,000 people across the area urging them to lobby the powerful Surrey Health Scrutiny Committee.

"It is clear this lobbying has worked", said Simon. "After the Scrutiny Committee met the PCT it became clear that our request to stop the closure was winning the day. If the Scrutiny Committee had formally objected and forced the proposal to go before the Secretary of State for Health the PCT would have had to withdraw it, because it was so poorly thought through. That's why I think they have decided to take the decision now".

Simon thanked the hundreds of people who had written letters. "The public have made a difference. My heartfelt thanks goes to everyone who has written letters and made their voice heard", he said.

The PCT is likely, according to Simon, to announce a range of options. Whilst these will still include closure the idea of expanding services at the hospital, first put forward by Simon in a paper last April, A Bold New Future for Milford Hospital, will he says, be included.

"My view throughout has been that we should expand services at Milford Hospital. This would be excellent medically and it would make better use of money and help the PCT's budget crisis. This idea, and my original plan, can now be resurrected. I am determined to use the climbdown from the PCT to ensure we can secure Milford's future once and for all. The key to that will be expanding the services on site. I am certain of that", he said.