Joanne is keenly aware that the provision of quality health care is under threat in many parts of Westminster North and she is working with patients’ groups and medical practitioners to ensure that our most vulnerable residents are not denied access to fundamental services. Joanne believes that the standard of medical care available to local residents in Westminster North is inadequate given the staggering amount of taxpayers’ money that Gordon Brown has pumped into the National Health Service since 1997.
Joanne lobbied Westminster Primary Care Trust on behalf of local GPs when the GP practice at Garway Road faced closure and the incumbent practitioners were forced to tender for the new GP contract despite enjoying the overwhelming support of local patients. She spoke out in support of the resident GPs and their patients at a public meeting, gave some much needed legal advice to the Patients’ Action Group and sent an open letter to the head of Westminster PCT, Linda Hamlyn.
Joanne was delighted by the decision of Westminster Primary Care Trust Vacant Practice Panel to allow the Garway Road GPs to run the new contract at Hallfield Medical Centre and she said: ‘I am thrilled that the Vacant Practice Panel has awarded the GP contract for the Garway Road area to the existing practitioners. This bid ensures that the patients of Garway Road will receive the high quality of health care that they deserve. The importance of maintaining the local GP- patient link, which is central to a successful bid, cannot be quantified in simple monetary terms and offers both the GPs and the patients of Garway Road security in the years to come.’
Joanne is also backing health campaigners worried that prominent services at Queen Mary’s Hospital could be axed following the approval of a controversial deal that would see it merge with Imperial College and Hammersmith Hospital. It is feared that A&E services may be transferred out of the Paddington Hospital to make way for an advanced research facility as Imperial College seeks to be the first organisation other than an NHS trust to become a Foundation Sponsor.
