Crispin Blunt MP has welcomed the consultation launched yesterday by Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust to engage with patients and the local community on ways to improve the delivery of local healthcare services in the coming years. He said:

“The Trust is rightly planning to make a case for the investment needed to open a new specialist acute facility at one of their three sites whilst retaining other hospital services at those sites.

“My preference would be to locate the acute services at Sutton, in the middle of the Trust’s catchment area where there is the land to build a modern, fit-for-purpose hospital, co-located with The Royal Marsden at Sutton, a leading specialist cancer treatment hospital. I will work to support the case for co-location at Sutton and encourage the local community to contribute their views and ideas.

“Politicians should give the leaders of our NHS the support they need to take an evidence-based approach to planning and delivering the highest quality estates and services possible, and to openly set out the options and engage with patients and local people in doing so. For all too long at St Helier, politics has stood in the way of designing and delivering the best healthcare services for patients.

“Attempts to split up the Trust are not included in the proposals put forward. This idea has been floated before but it has become clear there is no Surrey partner for Epsom Hospital, broken away from the Trust. The Surrey option is off the table and should stay off the table while we try to secure access to a new world-class critical care hospital for the 500,000 people of South West London and North East Surrey served by the Epsom and St Helier Trust.”

Details of the consultation can be found here.