The Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign is on high alert.  We fear plans are being made, once again, to propose closing Lewisham Hospital and selling-off its site.

We notice that the latest South East London healthcare strategy document uses arguments for reconfiguring NHS services in south east London that are very similar to those used by the Trust Special Administrator- who in 2012 proposed closing essential services at Lewisham Hospital: A&E, maternity, intensive care, medical, surgical and children’s wards.

To date, there is no specific mention of Lewisham Hospital, but that is exactly how the TSA discussed the issue at first – he talked generally of reconfiguration, care closer to home and concentrating hospital care in fewer sites, before he announced that to achieve these goals Lewisham Hospital would have to close.

  * Lewisham Hospital has proven itself to be successful, but the Our Healthier South East London strategy talks about a need to replace hospital care with community services.

  * The OHSEL strategy fails to acknowledge that community-based services are barely able to provide for existing needs, let alone provide for us if a local hospital closes.

  * They provide no evidence that a major increase in community services would reduce hospital admissions or would cost less.

  * Instead of mentioning the Private Finance Initiative, whereby millions of pounds profit is being paid to the private companies who financed the nearby Queen Elizabeth or Princess Royal Hospitals, it talks about the high cost of caring for sick people in hospitals.

  * Instead of talking about the risk to life of closing A&Es and maternity wards, or about the dangers of having one A&E for 750,000 people, it talks about having 'everything in the same place'.

We are on high alert, like we were before the TSA announcement in 2012, and we want to use this petition to show that the people of Lewisham are ready and willing to defend their hospital again should our fears be proved right and a further closure plan materializes.

It's really important to share this petition as much as you can and tell all your friends to keep an eye on www.savelewishamhospital.com / Twitter / Facebook, where we will post information about how to get involved.