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We need all the help we can get to raise public awareness of the very dangerous plans to remove all acute services from one, or most likely both, of our nearest hospitals, Epsom and St Helier.
As part of the plan to downgrade our major acute hospitals they have already sold 20% of Epsom Hospital and they say they plan to sell a large portion of St Helier this year or next.
In both cases they want the land to go-to property developers. In Epsom the buyer said they intend to build luxury retirement homes. In St Helier the Trust is intending to sell for high density housing!
The buildings on the land at Epsom, in contrast to The Trusts claim that buildings on it were derilict and unused, in fact housed staff accommodation ( they got notice to quit) office accommodation ( the Trust are now renting office space in Epsom town) The boiler rooms ( the Trust is building a new boiler elsewhere on site) maintainance facilties ( housed elsewhere on site presumably ) and Therapies including Cardio ( which will have to be accommodated elsewhere on site)
The Trust sold one fifth of Epsom land and buildings for only £18.5m, with no contractual restrictions regarding future use. They only made £15m profit after costs , they say. They were offered as much as £40m but turned it down. No good reasons were offered.
So shocking that they are holding firesales of our NHS land and buildings in the mad dash to put it beyond future use, at a time when demand is rising and the population is growing.
Thank you so much for the work you do.