London, UK. 7th July 2018. Keep Our St Helier Hospital (KOSHH) campaigners against the closure of acute facilities at Epsom and St Helier Hospitals in south London celebrate the 70th Birthday of the NHS by marching from Manor Park through Sutton High St to a rally in front of St Helier Hospital. The closures are prompted by government cuts which call for huge savings by the trust, and would Credit: Peter Marshall/Alamy Live News
London, UK. 7th July 2018. Keep Our St Helier Hospital (KOSHH) campaigners against the closure of acute facilities at Epsom and St Helier Hospitals in south London celebrate the 70th Birthday of the NHS by marching from Manor Park through Sutton High St to a rally in front of St Helier Hospital. The Epsom and St Helier Trust want to close A&E, Maternity, Paediatrics, Emergency Medicine and Surgery, Intensive Care, Coronary Care and the Cancer Centre at one or both hospitals and sell off the sites. The closures are prompted by government cuts which call for huge savings by the trust, and would leave a wide swathe of south London and around half a million people without proper access to hospital services. People would have to travel longer distances through increasingly congested roads to reach full hospital services at St Georges Tooting and elsewhere, a journey which might take 20 minutes when traffic was light but much longer when roads were congested; even in ambulances there would be more dead on arrival or whose condition had seriously deteriorated. People on Sutton High St clapped and cheered the march, and some joined it, at least for a short distance. THe marchers were tired at the end of the two mile march in blistering heat, but were revived by a welcome from the National Health Singers, and there were some short speeches and a die-in. Peter Marshall/Alamy Live News
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