Our N.H.S is a Right Mess

iReport — RE: Protesters fight back at the government’s decision to close our local hospital  Furious protesters lined the streets of my hometown this weekend to defend their rights to a decent National Health Service, in the face of UK Government’s budget-slashing plans. George Osborne’s comprehensive spending review in October 2010 made it obvious that the Coalition government’s number one priority would be to cut the deficit, with the deepest cuts occurring to local government funding. And my community faces the brunt of these belt-tightening budget cuts as our local Accident and Emergency casualty centre in King George’s hospital is facing the axe, as it’s proving too ‘expensive’ to run. If such planned closures go ahead, this would mean that our borough (Redbridge) would be the only outer-London borough without its own A&E and patients are dutifully expected to travel a further 25 minutes to Queen’s Hospital in Romford, Essex. At a time of cut backs, it’s understandable that the government wish to compensate by slashing the occasional youth club, recreational sports class or road-side library. But when you bring the closure of casualty centres into the equation, the outcome is absurd. Quite simply: Lives will be lost. In times of emergency, every minute is agonizingly vital but with this closure, ambulances will be diverted, treatment will be delayed, not to mention the utter inconvenience for one’s ‘local’ hospital to be anything but. This shows utter disregard to the well-being of our community or how imperative the government considers our health to be. It seems they have quite simply overlooked how patients in critical conditions will seek urgent help, how expectant mothers must add extra miles onto their laboured journeys into hospitals and the sort of detrimental knock-on effects this would have at Queen’s Hospital. Just over the Christmas period alone there was a death due to overcrowding at their A&E. So it seems somewhat foolish to send a...

Channel: iReport Video Length: 0s Date Found: Mon, Jan 31 2011 8:58 PM Category: News Date Produced: View Count: 0