Residents took to the streets today to show their support for local hospitals, despite plans to close four out of nine A&E departments in North West London.

People gathered in Southall Park to march against the planned hospital cuts despite the weather forecast being cold with showers and the possibly of some heavy rain.

The brisk 4 mile march to Ealing Commons would take over 2 hours, yet no one was complained about that.

Local MPs, GLA members, Leader of Ealing Council and other councillors marched from Southall Park to Ealing Common.

People started gathering in Southall Park at around 11 am. Councillor Julian Bell, Leader of Ealing Council was on stage at 11:30, shortly followed by Ealing Southall MP Virendra Sharma.

The march from Southall Park started at 12.15 and arrived at Ealing Common just before 2:30 pm

Councillor Julian Bell, Leader of Ealing Council, said the consultation was "a bogus consultation" whose results "set community against community, hospital against hospital. We want to save our hospitals".

Virendra Sharma, MP for Ealing Southall, said "Thousands and thousands of you have come out to save the NHS for the future generation. The Prime Minister had previously said that Ealing Hospital was safe."

"If we don’t save Ealing Hospital, who will be blamed? Our future generations will blame us for not acting."

John McDonnell, MP for Hayes and Harlington since 1997, said "we are not being conned", "we want no cuts" and "this is about our community needs".

A GP with 20 years experience, 10 years at Ealing Hospital, said "we are told the residents approve – this is not case. We are told the GPs approve – this is not the case. We are told it is safe. Closing 4 A&E departments and losing 1,000 beds is not safe. If you can’t give birth there and it has no A&E department, that is not a hospital. It is being sold off in front of our eyes".

A young girl named Lubna said "Please do not closing Ealing Hospital". I was born there.

Steve Pound, MP for Ealing North, said "The NHS is not a 60 year old mistake. It is the future of this community that the NHS will be supporting. It is much easier to destroy than the NHS than to rebuild it."

"You have heard from the future (Lubna) and the past (Steve Pound) – Save our NHS."

Angie Bray, Conservative MP for Ealing Central and Acton, said "It is a reckless decision".

A spokesperson for GMB said "Why would we close our maternity wards when births are rising? Why would we close A&E departments when the population in increasing?"

Andy Slaughter, Labour MP for Hammersmith, "There is no way the remaining hospitals will cope". At present, Ealing Hospital can only deal with 85% of A&E patients within 4 hours.

Eve Wright said "We won’t let them destroy the NHS".

Sarah Cook, Regional Co-ordinator (London) of Unite the Union, said that this was a "return to the winter of our discontent".

Navin Shah, GLA member for Brent and Harrow, said "we are fighting to save the NHS".

Councillor Gary Malcolm, leader of the Ealing Liberal Democrats said "it will affect you one way or the other – for the worse. We should be improving the services, not closing them down".

Other speakers included:

• Channi Singh, the bhangra singer
• Murad Qureshi, Chair of the London Assembly's Health and Environment Committee.
• Councillor David Millican, Leader of the Opposition Ealing Council
• Chairmain of the Greenford mosque
• Candy Udwin, a member of the right to work campaign steering committee

The protest finished at 3:30 when drops of rains fell briefly.