Why is no-one willing to say they are worried about Whipps?

NHS bosses were considering an option to close Whipps Cross University Hospital as part of a reconfiguration of health services in north east London.

Residents young and old, MPs and councillors united to ensure the powers that be knew how much the hospital meant to people.

The kindness, professionalism and dedication of staff had touched families for generations and the community was not prepared to give up ‘the peoples’ hospital’ without a fight.

The scale and passion of the united effort caught health bosses on the back foot and public pressure played a significant, if not pivitol, role in the eventual scrapping of the option to close Whipps. But now the hospital faces an arguably greater challenge.

The scale of the current financial difficulties, symbolised most potently by staff recently being asked to work for free, should worry everyone who fought so hard to keep Whipps as a district general hospital.

The merger with two other trusts is the only thing that can prevent the Whipps trust board from losing control of the hospital to Department of Health troubleshooters.

If that happens, anything could happen and a significant reduction in services at the Leytonstone site is a possibility.

Despite the critical situation, many of those who so vociferously fought for the hospital’s future in 2007 are now conspicuous in their silence on the issue.

The political and economic landscape has changed and it appears priorities have too.

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