Bromley and Bexley London Assembly member James Cleverly

Campaigners say they are “furious” hospital bosses have decided to axe a busy A&E department BEFORE a review into the controversial proposals has been completed, and have vowed to fight to ensure the unit remains open.

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Bosses at South London NHS Trust announced this week that the A&E department at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup will “temporarily” close in November, meaning patients will have to travel miles further to the already overcrowded hospital at Princess Royal University Hospital in Farnborough.

Staff and medical supply shortages were the reasons given by hospital bosses for the closure, which will also see the maternity unit close.

The announcement comes while the GP-led review into the closures, promised by the coalition government is still being carried out.

The review is scrutinising the proposals put forward by the committee A Picture of Health in 2007 and the controversial four-month public consultation it launched in January 2008.

London Assembly member for Bromley James Cleverly said: “I am furious. We have a review and the Secretary of State has made an absolute commitment that there will be a moratorium into the ultimately flawed consultation by A Picture of Health.

“Last year when the three Trusts merged, we all thought they would recruit staff to the new Trust and then redeploy them to the three hospitals as needed. Now we are being told what is happening without being consulted.

“We are going to fight this. It has been presented as a fait accompli but the independent review has not even finished.”

The permanent closure of both departments was decided by managers at Bromley, Bexley and Greenwich PCTs in July 2008 and is supposedly on hold while the review is concluded. But bosses at NHS London who are in charge of the review were unable to tell the Times when it is due to be finished.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: “I have been fighting healthcare cuts in the capital and have written to the Secretary of State about that and I will raise it again.

“I don’t control the health budget in London but this is something that should be looked into. This decision has been taken by the local NHS Trust.” When asked what he is going to do about the closure of the A&E he campaigned to save before he became mayor, he said: “I am going to make appropriate representations.”

The Times’ Save Our Services campaign has been fighting since 2007 to halt the closures and exposed the misleading claims made by A Picture of Health.

Orpington MP Jo Johnson said: “This proposed winter closure of A&E and maternity departments at Queen Mary’s is a blow to NHS staff and patients. It is critical that the board and senior management of the South London Healthcare NHS Trust hold a public meeting at which all questions concerning the proposed closures can be discussed in an open and transparent manner.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and NHS London confirmed that recruitment problems were only faced at South East London NHS Trust and were not faced in any other parts of the country.

The spokesperson for the Department of Health added: “The A&E and obstetric services at Queen Mary’s should temporarily close while there are concerns that they don’t meet the high standards that patients deserve.

“This will not impact on NHS London’s assessment of local reconfiguration plans against the four tests outlined by Sir David Nicholson and services will reopen if this is found to be best for the local community.

“The Secretary of State has pledged that, in future, all service changes must be led from the bottom-up by clinicians, patients and local authorities with an improved focus on quality.”