Date: 15th January 2003
Released by: ANDREW TURNER

A delegation that travelled from the Island and across the South to deliver a petition to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street met the Island’s MP Andrew Turner in London yesterday. The petition, which attracted over 52,000 signatures in less than a week, calls for urgent action to be taken to ensure that the King Edward VII hospital in Midhurst which treats NHS patients from the Island remains open.

Later yesterday Mr Turner took the opportunity to raise the issue on the floor of the House of Commons during a debate on health services for Islanders. He spoke of his shock at hearing of the prospect that such an excellent facility faced closure at the same time as patient waiting lists for Islanders at the Royal Sussex County Hospital at Brighton were soaring, and pointed out that King Edward VII which is an independent charitable hospital with a 50 year history of treating NHS patients provides the NHS with the opportunity of more than 400 cardiac operations each year. He went on to say

“Most people who need cardiac intervention are old. They have paid into the NHS since its inception, yet in their hour of need they are told to wait, despite capacity being available. That is quite simply something that neither they nor I can understand.”

Mr Turner also reported the comments of a local doctor who told him that the decision to send patients to Brighton instead of King Edward VII was ‘politically motivated’.

Speaking after the debate Mr Turner said

“King Edward VII hospital is a fine hospital and many of my constituents literally owe their lives to the care that they have received there, I have been told time and time again of the excellent facilities and standards of medical and nursing care. I am not prepared to allow my constituents to suffer because of the Government’s political dogma. Other Members of Parliament share my concerns because their constituents are affected in a similar way – we shall fight as a group to ensure that these facilities remain available to NHS patients across the South. The Minister has assured me that discussions are continuing with the hospital and I shall be keeping a close eye on the situation.”