St Helier: a reprieve not a victory

In Siobhain's latest Newsletter to local residents, Siobhain has made the following statement about the news that the plans to shut A&E and other services at St Helier have been described by local clinicians as 'not viable':

The latest twists and turns at St Helier
And as if by magic, the new year has seen yet another twist in the the Save St Helier campaign. As you know, the community has been fighting the threat to shut St Helier’s A&E, maternity, ICU, children’s and renal units, as well as 390 in-patient beds – all because our local NHS has to save £370m a year.
 
Well, earlier this week local health providers finally admitted the plan is “not viable”. That’s largely because residents and Councillors in Lewisham won a court case against the Government over the closure of their local hospital. The court ruled that if a number of GPs are against a hospital closure they can stop it happening.
 
However, although it’s fantastic news that residents won their court case against the Government, unfortunately in December Conservative and Lib Dem MPs voted to make it harder for anyone to block future hospital closures. If the House of Lords votes the same way, the new rules will come into effect later this year. That’s a really worrying prospect.
 
At the same time, the body behind the proposals to shut services at St Helier have insisted that they still need to do something, saying “the challenges outlined in the case for change remain... and we hope to make a further announcement in February”.
 
So it looks as though this is a reprieve rather than an outright victory. Every time we win a battle, they keep coming back for more.
 
Anyway, thank you for all the support you’ve given the Save St Helier campaign. This one will run and run! We’ll obviously have to wait and see what they say in February, but it really is thanks to all the work that we have done as a community that we’ve been this successful so far. Please keep up the good work!