Politics
Lewisham hospital consultation meeting
On 4 December 2012, the NHS Trust Special Administrator came to Lewisham's Calabash Centre for a consultation meeting about plans to close Lewisham Hospital's A&E and Maternity units. Fury ensued.
- Who else is off to the Calabash Centre now to tell the NHS Trust Special Administrator what we think of his ridiculous plan? #SaveLewishamAE
- A hundred or so outside the centre at the moment - assume they're not letting anyone in yet #SaveLewishamAE
- Torchlit vigil, 4-7pm, 13 December, outside Lewisham hospital, to mark the end of the consultation period. #SaveLewishamAE
- Reconfig of services at Lewisham etc is *only* rec. 5. Top line = predicted deficit, should read £79m #savelewishamae twitpic.com/bj2v1s
Oh wait, they'd deliberately changed that figure to £81m by making up a possible future shortfall at Lewisham... #savelewishamae- TSA's not going to know what's hit him here - people are already shouting for him to come out & mtg doesn't start 'til 7! #SaveLewishamAE
- TSA enters the room to lots of hostile shouting and booing, and the meeting gets started. #SaveLewishamAE
- twitpic.com/bj2z9y The panel for tonight. Kershaw, the TSA, is second from the right as we look. #SaveLewishamAE
- Panel introductions obviously trying to establish their NHS-working credentials, but not cutting any ice with furious crowd. #SaveLewishamAE
- The panel intros finish. "Where's anyone from LEWISHAM hospital?!" yells an audience member, pertinently. #SaveLewishamAE
@bitoclass I went to the staff meeting. There were many clinicians there sticking the boot in- Apparently the people involved from Lewisham hospital "can't all be here tonight" - we'd've settled for ANY of them! #FAIL #SaveLewishamAE
- Kershaw gets a few seconds into his speech before huge interruptions - "Lewisham's hasn't got any financial problems!" etc. #SaveLewishamAE
- Chair now threatening to cut meeting short if heckling doesn't stop: "no point panel being here". #savelewishamae
- Now being shown the TSA "propaganda" video, contrary to the loudly expressed wishes of a lot of those in the room #savelewishamae
- Oops, didn't manage to hold back an "It's COMPLETELY different!" when TSA came on the vid to compare NHS & household budgets #SaveLewishamAE
- Crowd drowns out the video shouting "TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!" so it's stopped. People power! #SaveLewishamAE
- Chair goes to threaten to end mtg due to shouting; audience man pleads for calm; chair asks if vid should go on again; "NO!" #SaveLewishamAE
- Questioner reprimands chair: "I'm a woman, not a lady!" His response dire: "Ooh, a woman not a lady" in weird sarcastic tone #SaveLewishamAE
- Pretty sure the Gavin Grey mentioned here is tonight's chair. Explains a lot. #savelewishamae m.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/nov…
- "We are not closing the A&E - we're suggesting that the most urgently sick people go to other hospitals" - er...?! #SaveLewishamAE
Very combative atmosphere, but that's to be expected when being patronized on epic scale by panel #savelewishamae- People keep asking where all the A&E + maternity patients'd go, and keep just being told "other hospitals". WHICH ONES?! #SaveLewishamAE
- twitpic.com/bj36ap @heidi_mp says she's as angry as the rest of us but encourages us to "use this time productively" #SaveLewishamAE
- Q: what's the evidence for changing Lewisham services? Her husband supposed to go to Kings last year; no beds for 6 days. #savelewishamae
