Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital (Hansard, 16 May 1978)

§ Mr. Ennals

The Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital has a fine tradition of providing medical care to women who wish to be treated by women and I am aware of the loyalty and support it has aroused as a result of its service to women.

My predecessor decided that it would be uneconomic for the hospital to continue on its present site and that its facilities should therefore be transferred to a district general hospital within the same area in an identifiable form which would preserve the original concept of the hospital.

I endorsed this decision in October 1976. The Camden and Islington Area Health Authority and the North-East Thames Regional Health Authority have calculated that capital expenditure of £500,000 would be required to make the Euston Road site viable for the longer term and that running costs of £900,000 a year would be incurred. The area health authority has also concluded that, even if the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital were to be upgraded, it would have too few beds to form an acceptable multi-specialty hospital and that it was not required to meet the area's service commitments.

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In view of the tradition of service for women by women established by the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, the Government and the health authorities have made great efforts to make possible a transfer to another site. The Camden and Islington Area Health Authority proposed transfer of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson facility to the Whittington Hospital where two upgraded wards were to be made available immediately and a further two when upgrading was completed. Unfortunately this offer was not regarded as acceptable. As a result the North-East Thames Regional Health Authority has concluded that the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in Euston Road should be closed as soon as possible.

The future of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital has been under prolonged debate and I now have to take a final decision. I have reluctantly concluded that the hospital at Euston Road should close on 21st July 1978.

The area health authority will consult with the regional health authority with a view to finding additional sessions for consultants who lose sessions through closure of the hospital. All other staff will be offered alternative posts by the area health authority.

I fully understand the desire of hospital staff to remain on their present site, but this is not financially viable. If the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital is to survive as an entity the only practical possibility is a transfer to the Whittington Hospital. If the staff concerned now wish to take up the offer which was made last year I am prepared to ask the health authorities even at this late stage to consider whether the transfer could be effected. In this way the proud tradition of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital could be preserved.

I am aware that there is some demand by women patients to be treated by women and I believe that when a woman patient wishes—for religious or other strongly held reasons—to be treated by a woman, every reasonable effort should be made to meet her wishes. With the increasing number of women qualifying in medicine and the growing number working in the National Health Service it should be increasingly possible for the relatively small number of patients who want this service to obtain it in most 121W parts of the country. I am asking regional health authorities to consider how, within manpower and resource constraints, they can ensure that the wish of some women to be treated by women can be met.