COUNCILLOR Joel Charles is supporting the intervention made today (Tuesday) by the Chief Executive of the Princess Alexandra Hospital to call for a £70 million injection of emergency capital funding to maintain key services at the existing site.

The Chief Executive is concerned, in particular, that the maternity service at the hospital is struggling.

Cllr Joel Charles is calling on the Government to allocate the Princess Alexandra Hospital a fair share of existing national funding that is supposed to be available to the NHS estate for critical maintenance and upgrades:

“Harlow’s hospital should not be at the back of the queue when it comes to accessing national funding for essential maintenance.

“The Government has claimed that it is in a position to act to address NHS estate issues, but it seems no one in Whitehall has woken up to the fact that the existing facilities at our hospital are operating without an adequate level of funding. This risks negatively impacting the existing standard of acute, outpatient and diagnostic services provided.

“I agree with the Chief Executive that urgent action must be taken. The Minister of State responsible for NHS capital, land and estates should be held to account for not releasing the funding our hospital needs right now.

It is also clear that our local Member of Parliament needs to do more to make sure the Government better understands the seriousness of the situation in Harlow.”