During the pandemic, I successfully campaigned to save Queen Mary’s Hospital Urgent Treatment Centre from closing down.

In 2020, the Urgent Treatment Centre closed down because of Covid, there were no plans for it to re-open which was massively worrying. I was determined to ensure this would re-open and started a campaign.

The permanent closure of the Urgent Treatment Centre would have been disastrous for our local community. It serves over 16,000 local residents annually. If it had closed, patients would have been directed to other facilities including Kingston Hospital and Teddington Walk-in centres or St. George’s Hospital A and E Department. For those needing medical assistance this is an unacceptable journey taking up to an hour on public transport. For the very young and those unable to use public transport it can be an impossible journey. A closure would have also placed additional pressure on already stretched local GP services.

I launched a petition, met with the Chief Executive of the Hospital Trust, Jacqueline Totterdell and raised the worries of those in our local community. I held a debate in Parliament, which you can read here, to talk about the importance of the centre to those across the Borough and the difficulties they were enduring during the closure. Following this debate, I met with the Health Minister who ensured that the centre would be re-opened.

I am so glad that the campaign was successful and we still have our fantastic Urgent Treatment Centre in Roehampton.