Sunday, November 09, 2008

ITV Capture Residents' Feelings On Hospital Closure



Sutton Guardian, London Tonight and the Daily Telegraph have made the link between Remembrance Sunday and the sale of the Carshalton War Memorial land for housing. Another terrific turnout at the War Memorial by the ponds where locals, joined by the Civic party comprising of the Mayor, MPs, councillors an dcouncil officers, showed the lasting respect that Carshalton residents have for those who sacrificed their lives for our freedom. The Hospital is a lasting legacy left by those who paid for it to be built for the treatment of local people and especially those who had returned from the frontline.

For people in the area now, the depth of feeling lasts longer than a single weekend. Selling off the family silver means that this site will never be able to be used for healthcare again. So many plots of land have gone the same way. How can we cope with ever-changing theories and fashions in healthcare? It operated on the same basis as a cottage hospital. These were largely closed over many years but are starting to make a comeback. Unfortunately for Sutton residents, they are mainly coming back in Merton thanks to a lot of postage stamps bought by the local MP using taxpayers' money. The Telegraph reports that the NHS changed their mind on Intermediate Care because they would treat people in their homes. This skips over the fact that they have a 53 page report on their website explaining how they are going to site the Intermediate care that was considered for Carshalton, in Wilsons Hospital. This is a building that I have been blissfully unaware of the existence of for the near quarter of a century that I have lived in Carshalton.

Looking back, I first posted about the hospital two years ago. At that time it was out of frustration after waiting eight months to get an answer as to what was happening on the site. It took a further twenty four months to get that answer. If a single piece of correspondence takes that long, I wonder how long the proposed changes in local healthcare take to implement.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good blog and interview. How sad is it that every issue from Sutton that makes the TV is one of some shamefully, callous and thoughtless act which has not been morally quantified!

Anonymous said...

Paul,
good blog and interview. This is of great concern to all of us in Carshalton, not least being so close to the site. I wonder what anything will look like if the existing building is demolished? It is a great joy to live in a village that still has a bit of character and history, should we loose this one it will be a true loss to the community. I would have loved to see it come back to real use as in helping people in need, rather than being sold off to property developers. How can the trust be allowed to sell up such a historical building.
Had been great to brought this to attention when DC was in Sutton the other day.
What can we do?

No. 29