Queen Elizabeth Hospital protestors carry coffins through grounds
1:17pm Monday 21st May 2012 in Where I Live By Mark Chandler
Coffins had the South London Healthcare Trust acronym written on them
CAMPAIGNERS who claim hospital managers are killing the service dressed in black and carried coffins through its grounds last Friday.
The Patient Action Group caused a stir with its protest at Woolwich's Queen Elizabeth Hospital which the South London Healthcare Trust branded "totally inappropriate".
Protestors also circulated images of trust managers bearing coffins - pamphlets slammed as "deeply insulting" by a hospital spokesman.
But a group of former patients holding placards insisted the chief executive Dr Chris Streather had to go - something News Shopper has also called for - and demanded the A&E at Sidcup's Queen Mary's Hospital be reopened after its controversial closure.
Organiser Helen Ellis claimed: "Since the creation of this trust, the service should have blossomed but it hasn't - the treatment isn't improving."
Ms Ellis said she had received numerous emails from disgruntled patients.
But she claimed medical staff were too scared to speak out about problems at the hospitals, especially after Dr Ramon Niekrash was unfairly suspended after whistleblowing and then left financially crippled by his subsequent legal battle.
Protestor Brendan Dorey, 69, who waited five hours to see a doctor last year after being admitted with a suspected heart attack, said: "The nursing staff and doctors are ok but the management people like Streather aren't interested in the patients.
"They're not giving us the service we deserve to get."
A spokesman for the trust cited a recent report showing the hospitals' survival rates were higher than the national average.
He said: "Our staff come to work to do what we all joined the NHS for – to look after people who need our care and treatment when they are unwell.
"In common with other hospitals that treat large numbers of patients, we do not always get everything right.
"We are open about this, and at the same time we are proud of the very significant safety improvements that have been made since the trust was formed."
To contact the group email patientactiongroup@yahoo.com
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