Super Hospitals - The impact locally

The recent Alberti and Boyle reports on "Super hospitals" are part of of an ongoing debate about large hospitals versus smaller acute hospitals (ie those with between 150,000-300,000 - such as the old Epsom Care Trust). A few points to remember in this debate.

1. The current Epsom and St Helier Trust catchment area of 500,000 is in line with Royal College guidance. I always thought it was best to have services provied at both St Helier and Epsom, but even with main A&E services provided at St Helier, the Trust is in line with the 500,000 requirement.

2. There is an evolving change between the level of highly specialist operations and the rest. Inevitably there will be some change through the evolution is in medical and working practices. The crucial thing is to keep campaigning for the future of St Helier Hospital as a major site. The recent march assisted with this.

However as exclusively was reported in a recent post, it is possible that Professor Darzi from the Royal Marsden in his London-wide role may hold the fate of St Helier Hospital in his hands??