Queen Mary's decision made inevitable by politicians

10.53.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 12th May 2009

Duncan Borrowman at Queen Mary's Sidcup

Reacting to the announcement that Health Secretary Alan Johnson has given the green light to close the A&E, in-patient paediatric and Maternity Services (excluding the Midwifery led unit) at Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup. Local Liberal Democrat campaigner Duncan Borrowman said:

"This has been caused by decades of successive Conservative and Labour governments throwing all their money at Private Finance Initiative funded hospitals. PFI deals soak up money into the contracts, not into patient care. The PFI contract at the PRU in Farnborough, introduced by the Conservatives, has been sucking local health care dry. The same has happened with the QE2 in Woolwich, planned by the Conservatives but brought in by Labour. Queen Mary's has sat in the middle, a publicly funded hospital leeched dry over decades by neighbouring hospitals.