Politicians at loggerheads over Charing Cross Hospital
By Ben Lynch, Local Democracy Reporter
Tensions ran high at Hammersmith and Fulham council as Labour and the Tories traded blows over the funding for Charing Cross Hospital.
A Conservative motion urging the council to call on the Government ‘to secure the future of Charing Cross Hospital’ was labelled a ‘hollow little shell’ by the Labour administration.
A lengthy amended motion was agreed, welcoming the Government’s £25billion funding for the NHS, noting Charing Cross’s future is ‘secure,’ and attacking the Conservatives’ record on the hospital.
The funding and refurbishment of Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith has proved controversial for a number of years. NHS plans to demolish and sell off most of the site were axed in 2019 following a seven-year campaign.
Charing Cross was then included in the former Conservative Government’s New Hospital Programme (NHP). The NHP, which featured in Boris Johnson’s 2019 election manifesto, promised 40 new hospitals by 2030.
On Monday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced the original NHP was unaffordable in the short term and that funding would be released in waves.
Charing Cross was included in the fourth and final tranche, for which construction is not expected to begin until 2035 to 2038. A cost estimate for the works is listed as £1.5bn for both Charing Cross and Hammersmith.
At the council meeting, Cllr Andrew Dinsmore, opposition deputy leader, criticised the Labour MP for Chelsea and Fulham and former councillor Ben Coleman’s election campaign promises regarding the refurbishment of the hospital and the commitment made by Mr Streeting to the NHP.
He said Mr Coleman, who recently stood down as a local councillor, should resign his seat in Parliament and call a by-election. Cllr Amanda Lloyd-Harris similarly attacked the Government’s decision to put the hospital rebuild into its fourth wave of funding.
Labour councillor Jacolyn Daly also directed ire at the Tory benches, saying: “How dare you? It’s 12 years since the Conservatives were in administration [locally] and colluded to sell off the land and reduce the number of beds there from 360 to 24. The plans to close our hospital were published, and they were widely reported.”
Cllr Daly further lambasted the former Tory Government’s commitment to the Charing Cross rebuild, describing it as a ‘hollow shell of a project’.
“Now we can see it was all lies. Not a single serious plan made. Not a penny put aside. The whole much-needed and anticipated second wave refurbishment [was] exposed as a shame, a hollow, empty vessel.”
Council leader Stephen Cowan refuted the Conservative claims the former Government had plans for a floor-by-floor refurbishment of the hospital, describing it as ‘subterfuge’.
“Don’t give us the nonsense that somehow Charing Cross has been well looked after when you were custodians of our health service,” he said.
Cllr Cowan added he is due to meet with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Charing Cross, Mr Coleman and Hammersmith and Chiswick MP Andrew Slaughter to discuss how to support the facility.
Picture: LDRS/Julia Gregory