Letter from Sir Bruce Keogh 30th January, NHS medical Director, to Jeremy Hunt 

”You asked me to provide an independent clinical view on the recommendations made by the Trust Special Administrator (TSA) for South London Healthcare NHS Trust … To read the letter in full click here

 

Hunt’s statement in full from Hansard 31st January

Read in full here

Lewisham NHS Trust consultants wrote on 4 February to Sir Bruce Keogh about the role of his evidence in Jeremy Hunt’s decision

‘We write with particular reference to the Secretary of State’s decision to recommend the downgrading of University Hospital Lewisham’s (UHL) emergency admissions and maternity services. We consider it a matter of public interest that you make available the evidence on which you have based your advice to the Secretary of State. This advice may ultimately have proved pivotal, since it has underpinned the assertions he made during the announcement to parliament on 31 January and has therefore provided clinical justification for the changes now proposed at UHL.

1. We would be grateful if you would supply us with the clinical evidence behind the Secretary of State for Health’s claimii:
“Already, her constituents who have a stroke or a heart attack do not go to Lewisham hospital. They go to Tommy’s or Guy’s or other places where those specialist services can be delivered, and they get better treatment. We are expanding that principle through what I am announcing today, and it will save around 100 lives a year. That is something that she should welcome.”

To read or download the full letter click here