A charity providing NHS services, Mildmay Hospital, is facing funding pressures and could close its doors as soon as April 2020. According to the charity, patients living with HIV are set to lose their vital specialist services if the closure goes ahead. Officials are considering whether Mildmay’s services can be commissioned directly by NHS England.
The Mildmay website stipulates that the hospital costs less per patient than acute NHS hospitals and that their highly-skilled doctors, nurses and therapists are experts in specialist HIV care. Desperately sick patients are facing not being transferred from NHS hospitals, blocking beds urgently needed by other patients.
Mildmay’s CEO Geoff Coleman shared:
“Frustrated doctors across London have already come out in support of Mildmay, saying that if the hospital closes, hundreds of NHS patients will suffer. Overburdened NHS services just do not have the capacity to manage yet another group of patients with a chronic long-term condition such as HIV.”
Speaking about the charity hospital’s future, Rushanara Ali, MP for Bethnal Green and Bow said:
“Ministers must step in to save Mildmay Mission Hospital. Mildmay provides a vital specialist service for patients living with HIV. It would take £5m a year to keep Mildmay open, which is a tiny slice of the NHS budget. It is an entirely false economy to close this hospital and force patients into other parts of the NHS without the same medical specialism. We are calling on the Health Secretary Matt Hancock to intervene and save Mildmay before it is too late.”
A petition has been set up to combat the closure.
Sign the petition to save Mildmay Hospital at Change.org/SaveMildmay.
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