Council seeks to block hospital rebuild backed by PM

At a meeting on Tuesday, Merton Council in south London agreed to make a formal referral to the health and social care secretary following the decision by Surrey Heartlands and South West London clinical commissioning groups earlier this month.

HSJ previously reported that commissioners had voted in favour of building the new facility, which would see six core services move to the new site in Belmont, Sutton. The existing hospitals, Epsom and St Helier, would retain the rest.

The six services being moved are major accident and emergency, acute medicine, critical care, emergency services, births and inpatient paediatrics or children’s beds.

The hospital is one of the six rebuilds promised by prime minister Boris Johnson last summer as six trusts share a £2.7bn pot to build new ones up until 2025 — the government is expected to announce the acceleration of some projects in the near future.

The council has said it is challenging the decision on the grounds it will “move vital health services away from deprived areas and into a more affluent place”. It has also claimed patients may alternatively seek treatment at St George’s Hospital in nearby Tooting, “which is geographically closer”, or not at all due to the distance.

Councillor Peter McCabe, chair of Merton Council’s healthier communities and older people overview and scrutiny panel, said: “Closing acute services at St Helier Hospital, including the accident and emergency department and the consultant-led maternity service, would be detrimental to residents in the most deprived areas of Merton and would result in a substantially inferior health service for patients across the borough and beyond.”

He added they have now decided to ask Mr Hancock to refer the proposed decision to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel before the final decision is made, which could take months.

In response to the announcement, the trust’s chief nurse Arlene Wellman tweeted: “As a nurse, I’m disappointed by Merton Council in their attempt to block the £500m brand new, state-of-the-art hospital for our community. The plans also include much-needed upgrades to Epsom and St Helier hospitals where most [of the] services will stay.

“I truly hope they reconsider.”

The decision by commissioning group leaders comes after years of attempts to reconfigure hospital services in the area for nearly two decades.

‘No further delay’

Epsom and Ewell Council, which has said it believes the best site for the new hospital is within its own borough, told HSJ it does not want to introduce “any further delay” to plans and wants them to be finalised ahead of construction.

Councillor Barry Nash, chair of the council’s community and wellbeing committee, said: “We also want to ensure there is no delay in the promised additional investment in Epsom Hospital, and the guarantee that Epsom Hospital will retain 85 per cent of the existing services, which includes a 24/7 urgent treatment centre.”

Sutton Council said its preference for the new site was St Helier Hospital but it had no plans to call in the decision.

Meanwhile, Surrey County Council said its letter to ESHUHT and Surrey Downs CCG chiefs back in May remains its current position. However, there is a South West London joint health overview and scrutiny committee meeting on 29 July and they will “respond [to it] as appropriate”.