South London Healthcare NHS Trust — Statement

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 5:12 pm on 31 January 2013.

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Photo of Earl Howe Earl Howe The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health 5:12, 31 January 2013

I am grateful to my noble friend and agree with all that she has said. In making this very difficult decision, my right honourable friend's primary concern has been to protect outcomes for local patients. Indeed, the logic behind these proposals comes from the clinicians themselves, who came together from across London-way before the TSA was appointed-to develop a series of standards for certain conditions. These are based on the simple principle that a critical mass of highly qualified specialist consultants in one place, on a 24/7 basis, available to see patients within one hour and backed up by the latest medical equipment, will give patients better outcomes. At present, no south-east London hospital meets all the emergency or maternity clinical quality standards. Achieving those standards will mean accommodating acute in-patient care across fewer sites. The result will be that people in south-east London will continue to have much better access to A&E and specialist maternity units than the majority of the population in England, and the prediction is that up to 100 lives a year will be saved by this rearrangement of services. My noble friend has raised a very important point because this is about better patient outcomes.