St Helier Hospital is falling to bits under the Tories

St Helier Hospital is falling apart at the seams, while plans for the new A&E unit in Belmont promised by Boris Johnson’s Tory government haven’t materialised. Costs of the new unit are escalating, while a shocking £130m backlog of repairs has been allowed to build up at St Helier.

Labour Councillor for St Helier West - Shelia Berry raised the issue of dilapidated buildings, leaking roofs, broken patient lifts, flooded corridors, ward closures due to unsafe conditions with landlord Sutton Council - ‘the building is crumbling around the ears of the hard working staff, urgent repairs are needed to avoid putting patient safety at risk’.

The Tory government and our local MPs have been quick to publicise plans for a state of the art new urgent care unit, plans which are making slow progress, with dates being constantly put back while estimated costs continue to go up.

Locals want to know why haven’t they been taking care of the hospital we already have? The longer the St Helier building is allowed to fall into disrepair, the more it will cost to fix, while staff and patients suffer.

Sheila called on the South West London NHS Integrated Care Board and St George’s, Epsom and St Helier Hospital Group to look again at more cost-effective alternative proposals for local acute provision at St Helier much more in line with the all-party supported 2010-12 proposals. Likely save money as well as command wide consensus across the local area, yet at the same time still lead to a massive investment into the local health economy. Full details of the motion to Sutton Council can be read at https://moderngov.sutton.gov.uk/documents/s82090/Acute%20Healthcare%20Provision%20in%20Sutton%20_%20Council%20_%2020221121.pdf