CHRIS PHILP, the MP for Croydon South, on his latest efforts to ensure the continuing services at Purley Hospital
I have been calling for restoration of the service level at Purley Hospital’s minor injuries unit for some time. Morning opening hours, emergency access to the X-ray machine and the ability to treat more serious injuries, all of which were available until May 2014, should be reinstated.
Croydon’s Clinical Commissioning Group is consulting on options for urgent care in the borough. The good news is that their apparent favoured option includes the restoration of morning opening hours and the continued treatment of minor injuries in what they are now calling a “GP Hub”. It looks likely that one of the three hubs in the borough will be at Purley Hospital.
However, the option does not include the restoration of emergency access (that is, without an appointment for a suspected fracture or similar) to the existing X-ray facility at Purley. Nor does it include the ability to treat fractures and more serious injuries.
I believe that this omission is completely wrong. For residents of Coulsdon, Kenley, Purley, Sanderstead, Croham and beyond, it is far easier to get to Purley Hospital than to make the long journey to the A&E at Croydon University Hospital (or Mayday as was) for suspected fractures or more serious injuries.
Reinstating the emergency X-ray facility and ability to treat fractures will make full use of the Purley site, part of which was designed with this exact purpose in mind during its £11 million re-build, which only finished in 2013. It will also alleviate pressure on A&E at CUH. If properly publicised, the service is likely to be very highly used. In 2013-2014 the unit at Purley saw a 56 per cent year-on-year increase in usage, despite a lack of publicity.
Consultation on the options closes in mid-January. I have therefore organised a public meeting at 7.30pm this Thursday, January 7, at Christchurch on Brighton Road in Purley (opposite the Rotary Field; it is in a room at the rear of the church and can be accessed via the back) to hear directly from the CCCG about their plans and allow us all to put our views directly to them. I apologise for the very short notice but I wanted to get this done before the consultation closed.
Please do feel free to email your views to: getinvolved@croydonccg.nhs.uk. You may wish to copy the CEO and chairman of the CCCG at paula.swann@croydonccg.nhs.uk and anthony.brzezicki@nhs.net.
I very much hope that we can get the CCCG to upgrade the specification of the Purley unit in the way I have suggested.
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