GMB Southern, the union for staff at St Helier’s hospital in Carshalton, Sutton has learned from sources within the board of the NHS Trust that an announcement of the decision to begin consultations on the closure of St Helier hospital will be made in the New Year. GMB is calling on residents in South and South West London to mobilise to force senior NHS managers to scrap an announcement planned for the New Year to begin consultation on the closure of the 621 bed St Helier Hospital in South London.

The plan is to close one of the 5 hospitals covering the boroughs of Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames, Sutton, Wandsworth and Epsom and Ewell.

Last month the Kings Fund said the managers had been told to keep Sustainability and transformation plans (STP’s) out of the public domain including instructions to reject Freedom of Information requests to see draft plans and developed without ‘meaningful involvement of frontline staff or the patients they serve’.