§ Mr. CorbynTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what consultation she is proposing on the loss of wards in the Royal Northern hospital in Islington and Bloomsbury health authority.
§ Mr. SackvilleThe Bloomsbury and Islington health authority consulted interested parties on its proposals to centralise the acute services in Islington on the Archway and St. Mary's sites of the Whittington hospital. Following Islington community health council (CHC) opposition to those proposals the matter was referred to Ministers.
The hon. Member, together with the hon. Member for Islington, South and Finsbury (Mr. Smith) and the CHC, met with my hon. Friend the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State on 5 February to discuss those proposals.
I subsequently wrote to the chairman of Bloomsbury and Islington health authority on 1 June, copying the letter to the hon. Member, stating that it would not be right in this case for Ministers to intervene to overturn the decision by local management.