This was the occasion of the handing in of 2000 + postcards filled in by local people to petition Dame Alwyn Williams, Chief Executive of Barts NHS Trust, to ensure the retention or rebuilding of the Margaret Centre, the self-contained specialist palliative care unit and hospice in the grounds of the hospital.
Since plans to rebuild Whipps Cross Hospital were announced the Action4Whipps campaign group has been urging everyone in the local community to to make full use of their right to have a say in the form that this very welcome initiative should take. Although there has been no fully fledged public consultatuion (which the Council is legally required to provide) strong opinions have been expressed from the outset on what would constitute a fully adiquate, well planned and properly financed replacement to serve the people of Waltham Forest and beyond into the foreseeable future. While welcoming the proposal to modernise, now that plans have been drawn up and passed by the Waltham Forest Council there are many aspects of the scheme about which the Action4Whipps group and local people, including many of the staff of the existing hospital, have strong reservations.
The Action4Whipps website, where you can find all about the campaign and keep up to date by signing up for the Action4Whipps Mailing List, is hosted by Forest Radio. You can visit by going first to forestradio.co.uk and using the link that you will see on the first page as soon as you arrive, or you can go there go there directly using this link: https://forestradio.co.uk/A4W/index.html.
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