PRUH's future "very healthy"!

Letter to News Shopper 28th March.
Bromley Hospitals' NHS Trust chief executive Ian Wilson, in his interview with Thom Kennedy, makes the assertion that as the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) is to remain a major admitting hospital, under the A Picture of Health (APoH) consultation, then the future for the people of Bromley "is very rosy". That is, until Queen Mary's Hospital starts sending its patients over to him. In stating that "some work is moving out and some is moving in" he is implying quite unjustifiably that the net effect will be nil. In reality, whilst the PRUH will only lose planned inpatients, day and orthopaedic surgery, and children's assessment and treatment services it will have to accommodate a new urgent care centre and a new midwife led birthing unit. It will also have to take over some of Queen Mary's A&E, non-surgical emergency, emergency and complex surgery, trauma surgery, children's services-inpatients, assessment and treatment, and doctor-led maternity unit with intensive care for babies. It will also have to cope with a forecast rise in the local population over the next 10 years by over 90,000!

These new and diverted patients will not all be able to be accommodated by the PRUH and no attempt has been made whatsoever in the APoH consultation to try to address this future needs situation, choosing instead to concentrate on a clinical version of musical chairs.