VILLIERS WELCOMES DECISION TO SCRAP PLANS TO DOWNGRADE A&E SERVICES IN BARNET

Theresa Villiers, Member of Parliament for Chipping Barnet, has welcomed this week's announcement by Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, to scrap NHS London's plans which threatened to downgrade vital A&E services at Barnet Hospital. The plans, ordered by the previous Labour Government, sought to reconfigure A&E services across London and shift treatment from hospitals to polyclinics.

Barnet residents had faced seeing three local hospitals downgraded under NHS London’s plans. When Labour made the decision to downgrade services at Chase Farm Hospital, they promised that Barnet hospital would be upgraded to cope with the pressure of extra patients. However, NHS London secretly continued to discuss downgrading A&E and maternity services at Barnet hospital as well.

Theresa said, “As promised during the General Election campaign, Andrew Lansley has called a halt to Labour’s damaging NHS London proposals. This is a reassuring result for my constituents, who were facing a real threat to local healthcare under Labour’s plans.”

“I have asked questions in Parliament and campaigned hard to see vital healthcare services retained for my constituents. We want the NHS to focus on the concerns of patients not managers. We want patient care led by clinicians and an end to the bureaucratic culture of the last ten years which has put targets before patients. This is a great start to that process.”