Despite ongoing campaigns and countless meetings, Hillingdon Hospital has announced that the Urgent Care Nurse Practitioner Service at Mount Vernon Hospital has now closed.
The last patients were seen at the service on Friday, September 26.
The closure has gone ahead despite overwhelming public opposition, including a petition signed by more than 27,000 people.
As reported in the September edition of Northwood & Ruislip News, David Simmonds CBE, MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, wrote a letter to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, inviting him to discuss the proposed closure.
Last month, the trust revealed that the closure is due to “financial pressures and growing patient demand”.
Hillingdon Hospital has now said the closure will “strengthen [their] service at the Treatment Centre” and “ensure local communities receive the best care possible”.
Since the announcement, both Mr Simmonds MP and Gagan Mohindra, MP for South West Hertfordshire, have launched a survey hoping to overturn the decision.
Mr Simmonds MP posted on Facebook: “Today Mount Vernon Urgent Care Centre has been forced to close. But this campaign is far from over.
“I have now launched the Mount Vernon Health Survey. This is not another petition, it’s your chance to share your experiences of urgent care and wider NHS services locally,
“Every response will strengthen the case I take to the NHS leaders and government ministers.”
The closure has caused upset across the borough, with some residents calling the ordeal “unbelievable”.
Mr Mohindra MP said in a Facebook post: “With no upgrade to Watford General on the horizon, losing local urgent care is a serious concern.”
Hillingdon Hospital is directing patients to their closest alternatives, which are Watford General Hospital Urgent Treatment Centre, Northwick Park Urgent Treatment Centre and Hillingdon Hospital Urgent Treatment Centre.
To view the petition, visit www.shorturl.at/dXsRC
Photo credit: Gagan Mohindra MP Facebook
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