Lewisham Hospital A&E unit closure protest

Protest: Thousands took to the streets
Photo: @SaveLewishamAE March: Protest went 'as far as the eye could see'
Photo: @SaveLewishamAE Protest: Lewisham Hospital
(Photo: Ruth Baillie)

Protesters demonstrated outside Lewisham Hospital today in a move to save its Accident and Emergency department.

Several thousand people marched on the hospital to show their support for the casualty deaprtment as well as the hospital's maternity unit

The South London Healthcare Trust has been accused of wanting to close down Lewisham's Accident and Emergency Department to help it save money across south London's NHS.

The protesters then formed a human chain around the hospital before attending a rally in nearby Ladywell Park.

Jos Bell, one of the campaigners from Save Lewisham Hospital, said: "It is not just the Accident and Emergency Unit that they are planning to close.

"The highly regarded birth centre, the ICU and the paediatric wards are also under threat. It would mean people having to travel to Woolwich Hospital.

"What it will mean is that Lewisham would become a non-admitting hospital. And what we fear is that it will close and become a private hospital - or at the very least partly private.

"It is the prime site and it serves a population the same as Hull and Brighton."

She added that the A&E unit takes in some 120,000 patients every year and that the closure would mean extra pressure on neighbouring units at Woolwich and King's hospitals.

She said: "People will die. Lewisham is a very well regarded hospital and there is no other hospitals that are able to take up the slack - it is simply not there.

"That's the reason around 15,000 people came out in support of the march today."

One of those joining the protest Shannon Hawthorne, 25, from Sydenham, said the atmosphere had been overwhelmingly positive.

She said: "People were so determined and positive about the event. The police had to close off the roads because so many people were on the march.

"And you might think that drivers would be angry but instead they were beeping their support for the protest.

"Just looking at the numbers of people I would have thought that around 10,000 people were there."

The group Save Lewisham Hospital's A&E says the unit is being closed down because of a massive over spend in nearby South London Healthcare Trust's hospitals.

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