Alan Johnson sticks the knife in

With Gordon Brown's slow-mo self destruct now inevitable, Alan Johnson seems to be lined up to take over. Apparently he's very popular.

Not in Sidcup he isn't!!!!

He has just given the green light to the highly contentious service cuts at Queen Mary's Hospital. It is outrageous that he is cutting services at QMH in the face of such strong support for the hospital amongst local residents.

It has one of the best A&E departments in London, receiving a very high ranking in the Healthcare Commission patients’ survey. All of the neighbouring hospitals received lower scores. Even the Independent Reconfiguration Panel recognised that the A&E at QEH is ‘cramped’ and ‘the facilities at UHL were most in need of modernisation and development.’

I'm still sceptical about the clinical need for slashing services. The Bexley Times’s investigation has exposed that there is no record of the 100 local clinicians who apparently supported the cutting of these vital services.

From the outset, these proposals to cut back on care at Queen Mary’s were handled badly. The consultation process did not allow respondents to save the A&E, the consultant-led maternity unit or the inpatient paediatric unit at Queen Mary’s – the public were given three options but they all involved closing these units.

The whole process has been a scandal.