The special meeting of K&C Council last week unanimously agreed to oppose the move of the Royal Brompton Hospital to St Thomas’s Hospital in Lambeth. All 3 parties on the Council, Conservative, Labour and LibDem, spoke and voted against the move. This is a world-famous hospital and research institution. Last year it treated more than 210,000 outpatients and 40,000 people on the wards. More than 10,000 patients commented on their treatment, more than 90% favourably. There is a staff of 3,500 working at the Brompton and, in the most recent CQC report, its services were rated as good to outstanding. The treatment of respiratory diseases is one of its specialisms and it has been a treatment site during the first wave of covid.
Financial considerations may be key to this move. Its most recent valuation reckons it could fetch £1bn on the property market.
Curiously, the letter from management to the Council says on several occasions that the new institute south of the river would offer world-beating treatment to patients but did not say anything about what these new treatments would be. Patients are drawn from right across the SE of England and many of these patients come from NW London. Having to go to St Thomas’s from NW London would be an additional travel burden on many who may not be well.
Council attempts to get the chief executive, Robert Bell, to consult patients and local residents have been rebuffed on the grounds that the new institution would not constitute a merger but a statutory acquisition. Although the move supposedly will not be completed for 10 years, some services may be moved quite soon. Once institutions start to lose key departments, many staff leave on the grounds that the institution has no future.
Please sign the petition opposing this move https://www.change.org/p/the-royal-brompton-harefield-nhs-trust-save-our-brompton-hospital-41b70f5c-979b-4fbc-964d-e6ae34c1e0f3