"Hospital decisions should be made by local people and medics, not by money men" say Lib Dems

7.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Sat 20th Oct 2007

Liberal Democrats in Greenwich want to ensure that decisions on local health care services are made by local residents and the doctors and not used simply as an excuse to bail out the government's financial mismanagement of the NHS.

Commenting on a document issued by the NHS in South-East London, Councillor Brian Woodcraft, Liberal Democrat group leader on Greenwich Council said:

"Hospital doctors feel that patients will receive better treatment if some services are provided at specialist units rather than at all four local hospitals as at present. If the local NHS does move in this direction it is essential that the location of services is determined on the basis of patient need and accessibility.

"It would be unacceptable if services are cut at hospitals like Queen Mary's Sidcup and Queen Elizabeth's Woolwich because of the failure of the Government's Private Finance Initiative.

"Residents should make sure that their views are heard during the forthcoming consultation exercise"