Dear Mildmay supporters,

We last wrote to you in March 2021 to update you on Mildmay Hospital's situation. Our NHS contracts were temporarily extended until June 2021 and we were busy making sure that we had fulfilled every requirement and were talking to everyone we needed to about our service for people with HIV and those who are homeless and/or recovering from COVID-19.

Well, the clock is well and truly ticking, with less than two weeks until the end of June. Unbelievably, we still haven't heard anything about what's going to happen. Our fantastic MP, Rushanara Ali is on the case, as is our President, The Rt Hon The Lord (Norman) Fowler, but it seems crazy that we have been kept so utterly in the dark.

As things stand, we may have to stop admitting patients very soon and moving those already in our care elsewhere. This will result in bed-blocking in acute hospitals and people with complex HIV-related conditions simply not receiving the specialist treatment and rehabilitation that we provide. This won't be easy as we are consistently full. In fact, last week we had only one spare bed, and we already have a waiting list.

This happened last March too, and we were at the point of having to issue redundancies. Ironically, COVID-19 saved the day back then as every bed in the UK was suddenly needed. But we think this will always be the case. The pandemic isn't over, and what will come next? As a nation and as an advanced health service, we need to be ready, and saving Mildmay is part of that.

Please continue to share our petition and tell whoever you can. Once we reach 75,000 signatures, we will be one of the top petitions on Change.org. Let us hope that we will not have to deliver it to Matt Hancock and that we can come back to you very soon with some very good news.

Thank you,

All of us at Mildmay