The Tesco Foundation Hospital at St Helier??
Having recently put forward some ideas on how to develop a Local Care Network instead of the 3 Local Care Hospitals (LCH) originally suggested under Better Healthcare Closer to Home, I now turn to examine what may now happen with the development of a Critical Care Hospital for this area.
1. By October, Epsom may be downgraded for A&E and Maternity, with St Helier providing thses functions. More Sutton residents will have to go to Epsom for elective procedures.
2. Over the next 5-10 years more complex cases will migrate to St Georges. I suspect the Sutton Hospital CCH would have still suffered the same problem, even if put next to the Marsden.
3. Rebuilding on St Helier will probably be phased operation. It may be partly financed if a major retailer (eg Tesco, Sainsbury's) is asked to develop retail/restaurant facilities on the site and replacing current contractors and services provided by the League of Friends. This sort of partnership may be tied in with the Epsom and St Helier Trust securing Foundation status in due course. A mixed Housing development may also be part of this proposal, with affordable key worker housing "downstairs" and some lovely flats with superb views "upstairs".
The Hospital/Retail partnership would almost certainly require:
a) A review of the Hospital lease from the Council as the size of the proposed retail development might be more than just a facility for people visiting the hospital. It is interesting to note that the Council's controversial Employment Land Study identified this market opportunity for the site. I pointed out at the time that St Helier was already a major employer, which the Study seemed to brush over in its excitement in identifying this land opportunity!!
b) A revision of the Council's current identification of the St Helier site for "Community Use". This may become an issue during the debate on the forthcoming Core Planning document, so any submissions by the Epsom and St Helier Trust should be scrutinised for these sort of requested flexibilities.
If this is the eventual direction of travel and my assumptions are based on what is happening elsewhere in the country, then surely we should have a public debate with some effective scrutiny of this issue.
Rather than the Council sit back and wait to be told about possible options, Sutton should be deciding on where it stands on issues above that impact on its Executive and Strategic Planning roles.
1. By October, Epsom may be downgraded for A&E and Maternity, with St Helier providing thses functions. More Sutton residents will have to go to Epsom for elective procedures.
2. Over the next 5-10 years more complex cases will migrate to St Georges. I suspect the Sutton Hospital CCH would have still suffered the same problem, even if put next to the Marsden.
3. Rebuilding on St Helier will probably be phased operation. It may be partly financed if a major retailer (eg Tesco, Sainsbury's) is asked to develop retail/restaurant facilities on the site and replacing current contractors and services provided by the League of Friends. This sort of partnership may be tied in with the Epsom and St Helier Trust securing Foundation status in due course. A mixed Housing development may also be part of this proposal, with affordable key worker housing "downstairs" and some lovely flats with superb views "upstairs".
The Hospital/Retail partnership would almost certainly require:
a) A review of the Hospital lease from the Council as the size of the proposed retail development might be more than just a facility for people visiting the hospital. It is interesting to note that the Council's controversial Employment Land Study identified this market opportunity for the site. I pointed out at the time that St Helier was already a major employer, which the Study seemed to brush over in its excitement in identifying this land opportunity!!
b) A revision of the Council's current identification of the St Helier site for "Community Use". This may become an issue during the debate on the forthcoming Core Planning document, so any submissions by the Epsom and St Helier Trust should be scrutinised for these sort of requested flexibilities.
If this is the eventual direction of travel and my assumptions are based on what is happening elsewhere in the country, then surely we should have a public debate with some effective scrutiny of this issue.
Rather than the Council sit back and wait to be told about possible options, Sutton should be deciding on where it stands on issues above that impact on its Executive and Strategic Planning roles.
posted by Charlie Mansell at 9:48 am
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