Open Letter from Edward Lucas and Helen Baxter Regarding St Mary's Hospital

OPEN LETTER FROM EDWARD LUCAS AND HELEN BAXTER TO RT HON STEPHEN BARCLAY MP REGARDING ST MARY'S HOSPITAL

Rt Hon Stephen Barclay MP
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

29 May 2023

Dear Secretary of State

ST MARY’S HOSPITAL

We are writing to you in our capacity as Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidates for the Cities of London & Westminster and Westminster North respectively.

We were extremely disappointed to hear that the Government intends to break its promise to rebuild St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington by 2030, something which had been years in the planning.

St Mary’s is of vital importance to the constituents we seek to represent, but also London more widely. It is Westminster's only NHS hospital, one of only four A&E trauma centres in London and hosts the NHS’s largest biomedical research centre.

The current condition of the Victorian-era buildings represents an immediate risk to patients. In recent months alone, sewage has leaked into the pharmacy, ceilings have collapsed in two wards, and part of the Cambridge Wing has been deemed too dangerous for clinical use.

St Mary's is one of our leading teaching hospitals with an international reputation for research excellence. This is a terrible example of incompetence and neglect by the Government of one of our flagship hospitals.

We call on you to urgently reconsider this decision.

Yours sincerely,

Edward Lucas
Liberal Democrat PPC, Cities of London & Westminster

Helen Baxter
Liberal Democrat PPC, Westminster North

9 Maybury Court
Marylebone Street
London W1G 8JE

View the letter here.