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LABOUR
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News release
05.03.2020
For immediate use
Prime Minister pressed yet again to take action over dilapidated Hillingdon Hospital
Boris Johnson has failed to back a solution to the crisis facing Hillingdon Hospital, several months after being urged to do so by local London Assembly Member, Dr Onkar Sahota AM. Yet to receive a response to his original letter in November, Dr Sahota has now chased the Prime Minister on this issue asking him again, as the local Member of Parliament, to urgently address the numerous problems besetting the hospital. Dr Sahota said that despite Mr Johnson’s “long list of priorities”, he is still responsible for “standing up” for the right of his constituents “to the highest standards of public health care”.
In his most recent correspondence with Boris Johnson, Dr Sahota has reminded the Prime Minister of his previous pledge to work with him to rebuild Hillingdon Hospital.
This comes in the wake of a recent BBC report which recounted the experience of Kate Milsom, a 93-year-old woman, who was taken to Hillingdon Hospital in January after falling at home and being made to wait six hours for treatment on a trolley in a corridor.
Dr Sahota’s original and unanswered letter from November also lists the numerous other challenges facing Hillingdon Hospital, identified by its Trust Board. These include outbreaks of legionella disease, inefficient and life-expired heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems and annex wards that are unsuitable for use, amongst several other problems.
Dr Sahota also highlighted the hospital’s large maintenance backlog which totals around £107.5 million, alongside citing reports of an incident last year where child patients were evacuated from its wards after serious subsidence threatened their safety.
As of yet, Boris Johnson, has failed to fully commit to publicly backing either of the proposed solutions of rebuilding it in its current location, or moving it to an alternative site in the borough owned by Brunel University.
Dr Sahota has thrown his support behind the latter option, due to the constraints presented by the existing site and the opportunity for Brunel University to establish a new medical school to train new doctors which will help to plug high vacancy rates.
Local London Assembly Member, Dr Onkar Sahota AM said:
“Local people are being hugely let down, and possibly put at risk, by the dilapidated and ever-declining condition of Hillingdon Hospital. This is why I was glad to previously receive reassurances from Boris Johnson, that as the local MP, he would work with me to rebuild it.
“Whilst Boris Johnson understandably has a very long list of priorities to fulfil after becoming Prime Minister, I have been disappointed not to have received a response to my letter asking him to back a solution to the Hillingdon Hospital crisis after several months.
“He might be an itinerant, and some might say, jet-setting, Prime Minister, but this makes him no less accountable to his constituents or responsible for standing up for their right to the highest standards of public health care.
“I hope my latest letter prompts him to respond with the necessary urgency and with an agreement for us to work collaboratively together with the NHS and Brunel University to find a solution to this major local issue”.
ENDS