Posted by Steve on Tuesday 10th February
Funding for a top hospital
Dear Annette Brooke
I am writing to you about the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, Middlesex (RNOH). Clearly this hospital is not in your constituency but, as a specialist hospital, it serves the whole of the South of England and hence your constituents like me.
A couple of years ago I was diagnosed with bone sarcoma which is a very rare form of cancer, less than 0.2% of all cancers. Poole hospital, following NHS guidelines, referred me to RNOH.
Like everyone who first travels to RNOH, I was shocked at the state of the buildings. Well, they aren't really buildings at all, they are Nissen huts. Yet, as I was to discover, this is one of the best hospitals in the country. Even the taxi drivers say it is outstanding, with stories of visiting consultants from all over the world to learn from RNOH! Every patient that I have met have told me how wonderful the hospital is and, on a feedback form, I crossed out the options of "Poor, Good, Excellent" and substituted "Fantastic".
The care and the service is out of this world, but it is all delivered in ancient buildings which urgently need replacing.
You may have come across publicity such as a recent headline in The Times,
Top hospital facing closure over its ‘third world’ wards. Some funding was approved for new buildings but is now no longer there and the hospital urgently needs the NHS and Department of Health to stop dithering and sort out the necessary funding.
Could I ask you as an MP to push for decisions to be made as soon as possible so that RNOH can carry on giving the superb service that I have received?
