An open letter to Andrew Lansley MP, Secretary of State for Health.

During the lengthy history of the campaign to save Chase Farm, many different hurdles have been thrown at the public in Enfield to jump over. The proposed cuts to our A&E department; women’s, children’s and maternity departments were dressed up as the “Barnet, Enfield and Haringey (BEH) Clinical Strategy”. The “less is more” arguments never did persuade anyone other than those carefully chosen and paid to push through this agenda. So unsurprisingly the public have yet again delivered the message loud and clear that they do not want to lose their much needed front-line services. The council have pulled all major arguments together and submitted key scrutiny documents going back a few years to form a very comprehensive document backing Strategic Option One, which would retain all of the front line services. We now know that ambulance numbers, which are already stretched to the limit, are to be cut further. When the BEH Clinical Strategy was first conceived, representatives from the London Ambulance Service stood at carefully stage-managed public meetings where Chase Farm campaigners were rarely allowed to speak and promised that if this strategy were to be introduced then clearly additional ambulances would be needed in order to deliver patients safely to A&E departments further afield. If this is not now possible, then the need to retain emergency front-line services where the public can access them quickly is magnified yet further.

On April 21 last year you stated in a letter to the press: “With A&E in great demand, and a rising population, it is not acceptable that Enfield’s district hospital should be losing its A&E. If GPs and the people of Enfield want to maintain emergency and maternity services, there will be no forced closure under the Conservatives.”

We agree with this statement. Enfield clearly does have a rising population and currently has the highest number of people presenting at A&E departments out of all London boroughs. Once again we have done what has been asked of us. The local authority, residents and GPs have made their views known once again. “Strategic Option One” has already been discussed by the NHS and it is clearly stated in NHS documentation that this option is considered to be “clinically viable”. It really is over to you now to deliver on your promises. The ball is firmly in your court.

Kate Wilkinson and Kieran McGregor
Save Chase Farm Group