Victory for people's choice for hospital at St. Helier - Burstow

1.01.00pm GMT Mon 19th Dec 2005

Responding to news today that the Secretary of State for Health has reversed local NHS bosses' decision to locate the new critical care hospital in Sutton, local MPs Paul Burstow and Tom Brake have hailed victory for their campaign to safeguard the future of St Helier hospital and secure workable proposals for the building of a new critical care hospital for local people.

Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Health, confirmed her decision to reverse the decision of local NHS bosses today, giving the green light to site the hospital at St. Helier to both MPs earlier today.

Paul Burstow MP said:

"Our persistent lobbying has paid off. St Helier, the people's favourite, has won out. By choosing the Sutton site local NHS bosses achieved one thing and one thing only: uniting all local MPs of all political parties against the plans.

"Of course this is still not the end. The question has to be how did local NHS bosses get it so wrong in the first place, and why didn't they listen to results of their own consultation.

"And there must still be questions over the whole Better Health Closer to Home enterprise, with recent evidence to the Health Select Committee showing that the costs of PFI projects have overrun by as much as 60% above their original outline business case estimates."

Carshalton and Wallington MP Tom Brake added:

"This is clearly a victory for common sense. It is very hard to understand why, after having originally recommended St. Helier as Plan A, the Trusts suddenly backed Sutton as Plan B, only to revert to Plan A, which received the highest degree of community support at the outset.

"It's a very welcome decision, one that I will need to consult with St. Helier residents about, who will be most affected by these new plans, if indeed the Gov are able to come forward with the £350m that we need to complete the project."

ENDS.