MPs will debate services at Ealing Hospital on Tuesday
Sat 30 Apr 2016
A petition was started by the Save Ealing Hospital Community Action Group in October 2016. The text of the petition at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/109473 reads as follow:
Save Ealing Hospital Community Action Group will create community awareness against closure of vital public services. Look after our NHS "Publicly Funded" & "Publicly Provided" where everyone matters. Don't put profit before nation health stop "practice-based commissioning".
The NHS is being privatised bit by bit, and patients are already suffering. Community in Ealing Southall is deeply angered by the decision to close the Maternity Wing, followed by Children’s Ward & A&E.
The community has protested through all possible means. The protests and petitions had culminated in a peaceful occupation at the Maternity Wing Area as well as other forms of protests.
Protests are growing and the anger is reaching boiling point amongst thousands of members of the community.
The Governments initial response was:
“The changes that are taking place to NHS services in Ealing are designed to improve the quality of care, including maternity and paediatric care, for local people and are being led by clinicians.”
All petitions run for 6 months. 100,000 signatures are required for a petition to be considered for a debate in Parliament. This petition closed on 13 April 2016 with 100,229 signatures.
The government response was:
“The Petitions Committee decided not to schedule a debate in Westminster Hall as the number of dates available for debates is limited, and there are other ways in which MPs could seek a debate on this local issue.”
Mr Virendra Sharma, MP for Ealing, Southall, successfully applied for a debate in Westminster Hall on services at Ealing Hospital through a ballot system. This is one of the ways backbench MPs can get debates.
The Petitions Committee agreed to request that this petition be “tagged” as relevant to the debate. This means that it is listed on the order paper (the agenda of the House of Commons) as being relevant to the debate.
You can watch the debate live and on demand afterwards on Parliament TV: http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/e5880100-d930-4213-8106-042010f88f9d?agenda=True
You can read the transcript from Wednesday 4 May on the Hansard website: https://hansard.digiminster.com/commons/2016-05-03
The Ealing Hospital debate transcript is at: https://hansard.digiminster.com/commons/2016-05-03/debates/1605033000001/EalingHospital
Members of the public are welcome to watch the debate from the public gallery but please note that there are only 25-30 seats in the public gallery. Seats will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
You can find out how to attend Westminster Hall debates on the Parliament website: http://www.parliament.uk/visiting/visiting-and-tours/watch-committees-and-debates/westminster-hall-debates/
Petition will be debated on Tuesday 3 May 2016 at 1.30pm.If you have a local news story, share it with the rest of Southall, by using the contact form.
