§ Mr. John Austin-Walker (Woolwich)Madam Speaker, I have a petition in the prescribed form, supported by 16,000 signatures on further petitions, which expresses the widespread concern in Greenwich and Woolwich regarding the impact of the Government's reforms of the national health service and of the reneging on the pledges given when the Greenwich health care trust was established. A pledge was given to develop on the Brook hospital site an elective resource centre, an integral part of which was to be the regional specialty cardio-thoracic service.
The petition reads:
Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your Honourable House will appeal to the Secretary of State for Health to intervene to stop possible closures of the Brook, Memorial and Greenwich district hospitals and to establish a public inquiry into the state of the national health service in the Greenwich health district.
And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc,
§ To lie upon the Table.