I was born at St Helier Hospital and I have experience working for our local NHS. I know how much you value our local hospital, and I value our hospital and local healthcare just as the community does, so that is why St Helier and local healthcare will always be my top priority.
Using that NHS experience, I have been campaigning to get St Helier the funding it needs and I am delighted to say that the Conservative government announced in September that our local NHS would be getting the go ahead for a £500 million project to upgrade it's existing facilities and build a new local hospital to care for the sickest patients in our area.
This is excellent news for local patients!
What this means is:
- St Helier and Epsom Hospitals will both get the funding they need to properly refurbish and modernise their buildings, bringing previously unusable parts back into use to provide truly modern healthcare,
- From 2025, Epsom Hospital, St Helier Hospital and the new hospital at Sutton will all have a 24/7 Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) which is what 2/3 of those who currently go to A&E are treated by. Common ailments at UTCs include: broken limbs, minor head injuries, cuts/grazes, minor scalds/burns, ear, throat and skin infection, vomiting, and many more.
- A new hospital will be built locally to provide acute services like A&E and maternity, meaning for the first time, no services are being lost to Croydon or St George's,
- Our hardworking NHS staff get proper, modern facilities in which to work and care for patients,
- Patients have access to the best possible healthcare right here in our area!
The consultation on the site for the new hospital closed on 1st April and the results have been published here. There was a meeting of the local CCGs on 3rd July to discuss the results and approve the business case for building a new hospital right here in our area.
You can read more about the NHS' plans to improve healthcare in Carshalton and Wallington here.
If you have any questions about the plans, you can check out some of the most frequently asked questions on the NHS' website here. You can also contact the Improving Healthcare Together team to raise any queries you might have at:
- Email: hello@improvinghealthcaretogether.org.uk
- Write: Freepost IMPROVING HEALTHCARE TOGETHER 2020-2030
- Text: 07500 063191
- Call: 020 3880 0271
- Twitter: @IHTogether
- Facebook: @ImprovingHealthcareTogether
In response to the announcement, I have set up a 'Support St Helier' petition, giving residents a chance to say how much they value our local NHS, but also to call for this funding to be delivered as soon as possible so that St Helier can get the improvements that staff and patients deserve, as well as delivering a new hospital right here in our Borough.
