News from Richard Tracey: Richard Tracey calls for St Helier A&E to be retained

Merton’s London Assembly member, Richard Tracey, has written to St Helier University Hospital Trust urging them to retain the full compliment of accident and emergency services after the hospital’s development.

In a letter to Trust member, Alan Cordingley, Mr Tracey also says that redevelopment of the hospital should include expansion of its current car parking facilities.

Mr Tracey said:

“It is vital the St Helier’s accident and emergency services are retained in their current form and that the hospital’s development is not used as a means to down grade them.

“I have also urged the Trust, which runs the hospital to expand its car parking facilities because when one is ill one wants to the least stressful and most comfortable way of getting to hospital available – and that means going by car.”   

St Helier’s redevelopment will cost £219million.

ENDS

Editor’s notes

Please see below Mr Tracey’s letter to the NHS Trust concerning the hospital’s development.

Dear Mr Cordingley

Re: Proposed Development of St Helier Hospital

Further to your recent proposals for the redevelopment of St Helier Hospital, I wish to comment on behalf of my constituents in Merton and Wandsworth.

I very much welcome the upgrade to the hospital and its facilities, especially the commitment to house over 50 per cent of the hospital’s beds in single rooms. However, my constituents also very much value the hospital’s Accident and Emergency services and it is essential that these services are retained at St Helier for the long term. Therefore, if this redevelopment prompts a review of how facilities are spread across hospitals in the area, including St Helier, Epsom, St Peter’s and St George’s hospitals, I would not wish to see any downgrading of the A&E services at St Helier.

I also feel that, in making proposals for a new car park, this redevelopment would provide an ideal opportunity to increase the number of available parking spaces in order to provide the best possible comfort to patients and visitors, as well as avoiding the need to park in surrounding roads. I would therefore be grateful if you would reconsider your proposals for the car park to see if additional spaces can be provided.

In addition, your proposals did not appear to clarify what the finish would be on the roof of the new building. Perhaps you might consider whether this could be a good opportunity to install photovoltaic or solar panels to improve the energy efficiency of the hospital and minimise the hospital’s long term energy costs.

Thank you for taking the time to consider my comments and I look forward to seeing further details of the redevelopment in due course.

Yours sincerely

Richard Tracey AM