Tories 'hypocritical' on health reforms, says MP Joan Ryan (From This Is Local London)

Tories 'hypocritical' on health reforms, says MP Joan Ryan

1:43pm Thursday 11th March 2010 in

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CHASE Farm Hospital was at the centre of a Commons discussion on health reforms this week.

Enfield MPs Joan Ryan (Lab) and David Burrowes (Con) both plowed into the debate, held to consider a Conservative motion calling for a halt to hospital reconfigurations across the capital.

Under the latest plans to restructure NHS services across five boroughs, only two or three hospitals are guaranteed to retain their major acute status, with the rest becoming smaller local hospitals.

Current proposals would see A&E and consultant-led maternity services at Chase Farm Hospital, in The Ridgeway, downgraded by 2011 and relocated at North Middlesex Hospital and Barnet Hospital.

The A&E unit will be replaced by a 24-hour GP-led service that will provide priority overnight care from 2013.

Ms Ryan attacked the Tories for being "hypocritical" for failing to guarantee the Conservatives would save the A&E unit, while Mr Burrowes criticised Labour for a "woeful and incomplete" consultation process.

Ms Ryan, MP for Enfield North, said: "The minister will know that Chase Farm Hospital is a very good and much-loved, much-needed hospital.

"We know that the Conservatives have said that they would make no commitments.

"They are hypocritical in criticising changes while making no commitment to do anything different."

Speaking after the debate, Nick DeBois, Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Enfield North, refuted Ms Ryan's allegation, claiming her comments were based on out-of-date literature.

He said: "Our position is very clear. If we win the election we will halt the cuts to A&E and maternity, and make decisions on their future subject to the choice of patients and their GPs, not politicans as Labour have done."

Health minister Mike O'Brien agreed with Ms Ryan's points and agreed to meet her to discuss the possibility of keeping an ambulance service at the hospital.

Speaking later in the debate, Mr Burrowes said: "We hear a lot in documents about wide consultation, but it did not reach the doors of many of my constituents.

"The consultation was woeful and incomplete, leading to widespread concern and a lack of confidence.

"It is apparent the call for a local-led solution was nowhere near the mark when it came to Enfield. This was a top-down model, prescribed from on high and greatly restricted in the options presented."

The Southgate MP concluded with a scathing attack on reforms planned for Enfield.

He said: "Was there a bright new dawn in Enfield, which others could welcome and then follow down the same road?

"In the cold light of day in 2010, we see a primary care trust that is still strapped for cash and facing a historic debt of some £25 million.

"It is still struggling to get within a double-digit figure for its current debt, while the area still struggles to get any decent primary care."

Ms Ryan and Edmonton MP Andy Love (Lab) both opposed the motion, while Mr Burrowes supported it. The motion lost with 214 votes to 284.