Epsom and St Helier Hospitals at risk of downgrading if investment not secured

Only one of the six scenarios Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust envisages in its engagement, which was launched this week, involve acute services being retained at both sites.

To maintain accident and emergency, maternity and paediatrics departments, high dependency unit and coronary care services at both sites, the Trust would need between £300million and £400million to build a new hospital, it claimed.

This investment would fund a new hospital for its acutely unwell patients on one of its three sites – Epsom, St Helier and Sutton – and also ensure acute services are provided at a level that meet the NHS’ standards of care.

For 85 per cent of visitors, there would be no change and appointments, procedures, admissions and A&E visits would take place at the same site as they do currently, the Trust stated.

Walk-in centres and urgent care services would still be available at both sites, whatever the outcome, a spokeswoman advised.

Chief Executive Daniel Elkeles (pictured above) told the Epsom Guardian that the Trust needed the public’s support in order to secure funding and provide the quality of care to which it aspired.

He said: “We are passionate about providing as much care as close to people’s homes as we can, and we want to meet all of the NHS’ quality standards.

“I think it’s undeniable that our buildings need a huge amount of investment to maximise care. Everyone who comes to see them agrees.

“If we do not get the investment, we can’t, in perpetuity, continue providing good care within buildings that are not fit for purpose.

Mr Elkeles added: “We genuinely want to find out what people want.”

In the engagement, the Trust outlines six possible scenarios it must consider:

• Both hospitals continue as they are and receive enough funding to bring each site up to ‘functional levels’;

• A new specialist acute facility is based at Epsom;

• A new specialist acute facility is based at St Helier;

• A new specialist acute facility is based at Sutton Hospital;

• A new specialist acute facility is based at a combined site of Sutton Hospital and the Royal Marsden Hospital;

• The Trust receives no capital investment and acute services are withdrawn, and no specialist cancer care is provided at a combined site at Sutton Hospital and the Royal Marsden.

The engagement makes clear that the Trust wants to “make sure that this (last scenario) does not happen”.

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Residents’ responses to the survey, ‘Providing high-quality healthcare services: 2020 to 2030’, would enable the Trust to develop a business case for securing the necessary investment.

But Epsom and Ewell MP Chris Grayling (pictured above) wrote to the Trust’s chief executive Daniel Elkeles this week about his “profound concerns” about launching the engagement on the hospitals’ future without the guarantee of NHS funding.

The transport secretary believes it was wrong to launch the consultation “with no clear indication from NHS England that funds would even be available for the construction of a new hospital”.

He also argued Epsom should be “separated from the debate” about the future of hospital services in South West London, and that “Epsom and St Helier Hospitals should separate” to allow staff greater flexibility.

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“I’m not at all happy about this happening at this moment,” he told the Epsom Guardian.

“You can’t start a debate unless there is some degree of certainty about funds.

“We’ve had this happen so many times before.”

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Health campaigners Keep Our St Helier Hospital fear that if one or both of the sites is downgraded, the existing hospitals will “wither and die”.

A spokesperson said: “This plan must be opposed in the strongest possible terms, and we urge you all to join us in our campaign to fight for the continuation of our local hospital services.”

For more information and to take part, epsom-sthelier.nhs.uk