Wes Streeting to Be Asked to Review Children's Cancer Care Decision
New bid to reverse closure of facility at St. George's Hospital
Council leader Simon Hogg (second right) visits St George's Hospital
July 12, 2024
Wandsworth Council is hoping the recent change of government could offer some home for specialist children’s cancer care at St. George’s Hospital.
A campaign led by the borough will ask Wes Streeting the Secretary of State for Health to review the decision taken earlier this year to switch services away.
The council is set to refer the controversial decision to move the Principal Treatment Centre (PTC) care directly to the new minister.
Five other local authorities where children currently receive specialist cancer care at St George’s in Tooting are also expected to submit their own referrals, as the next step of a coordinated cross-party campaign from Richmond, Merton, Kingston, Surrey and Sutton.
Leader of Wandsworth Council, Cllr Simon Hogg, said, “We have opposed these plans to move specialist children’s cancer care from St George’s from the start.
“Our serious concerns remain – getting to Evelina hospital through central London traffic will be challenging at the best of times. Travelling by public transport is not an option for vulnerable children who are on immunosuppressant medication.
“So there has to be a better solution to these plans. We are calling on the Secretary of State to work with us, and six other local authorities, to look at ways to keep specialist care here at St George’s hospital.â€
St George's Hospital in Tooting has 25 years of experience in caring for children with cancer from across the south of England. The children's cancer service currently provides paediatric care to all of south London, most of Surrey, Kent, Medway, East Sussex and Brighton and Hove.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |