KOSHH Party candidates urge everyone to rock the vote!

The Keep Our St Helier Hospital Party (KOSHH Party) candidates urge everyone who is eligible to enrol to vote so they can participate in the May 22 local elections.

“The deadline for registering to vote is May 6 and we encourage everyone who is serious about saving St Helier Hospital to register,” says David Murray, KOSHH Party candidate for Wallington South, in the Sutton local elections. “This is a great chance to tell all the main parties that the hospital is the biggest issue facing Merton and Sutton.”

If you haven't yet registered to vote, click on this link - it is quick and easy to be part of this country's tradition of democracy. The KOSHH Party urges all voters in Merton and Sutton to think very carefully about who to support at the ballot box.

David Ash, KOSHH Party candidate for Raynes Park in Merton, is disappointed by the Merton Liberal Democrat manifesto for the forthcoming election. “There is not a single mention of St Helier Hospital in the Liberal Democrat’s Merton manifesto,” he says. “We agree that policies about safe streets, strong communities, heritage preservation and open government are important but without a commitment to preserving vital health services, such as St Helier Hospital, this rhetoric is meaningless.”

He adds: “Nobody voted for the top-down NHS reorganisation that David Cameron promised would not happen, nor for the sneaky contracting out of hospital services that is already happening at St Helier Hospital and all over England. You cannot trust the government or NHS England or the local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to ensure services at St Helier and across the whole of the NHS remain free at point of need.”

Sandra Ash, KOSHH Party candidate for Wimbledon Park in Merton, says she is still waiting for an explanation from Conservative councillor, Oonagh Moulton as to why she thinks St Helier Hospital’s services are safe: “Given that the CCGs have said they intend to use the same flawed financial and clinical reasoning they used to justify the proposed downgrading of St Helier Hospital under the failed BSBV plan, it seems inevitable they will again come to the same flawed conclusion.”

Frances Cornford, KOSHH Party candidate for Sutton West, says: “We want all political parties running for office in these local elections to make a public commitment to preserving St Helier Hospital's services. We want cross-party support for our hospital at a local government level - this is the only way for our councillors that are aligned with the major parties in Sutton and Merton to send a strong message to their colleagues in Westminster.”

Introducing Britain’s newest political party!

The future of St Helier Hospital is the biggest issue facing residents of Merton and Sutton and this has motivated six residents to declare they are prospective candidates in the May 22 local elections representing the Keep Our St Helier Hospital Party (KOSHH Party).

Meet the KOSHH Party team:

Dr Tiz North (Sutton South Ward, Sutton): Tiz has worked as a Consultant Radiologist at St Helier Hospital since 1977 and was previously the Clinical Director for Diagnostic Imaging for Epsom and St Helier. She has lived in Sutton since 1982.

Tiz says: “It is so important that we defend all the services at St Helier Hospital - A&E, maternity, children’s services, renal, everything. It would be a disaster for all patients and for the local community.”

David Murray (Wallington South Ward, Sutton): David has clocked up more than 25 years for IBM and as a local school governor. Married with three daughters, he now volunteers for St Raphael's Hospice, Age UK and CAFOD. He has lived in Wallington with his wife Anne for more than 40 years.

David says: "St Helier A&E were fantastic when I needed them recently and I want them there for future generations."

Frances Cornford (Sutton West Ward, Sutton): Frances has lived in Sutton for more than seven years and really appreciates the value of having a good local hospital. She believes that local politicians in Sutton are not doing nearly enough to protect St Helier.

Frances says: “Local politicians are full of warm words but little in the way of action. Being part of the Keep Our St Helier Hospital Party is a way to put pressure on politicians of all parties and make them realise how important our hospital and the NHS are to local people.”

David Ash: (Raynes Park Ward, Merton): David is a father and grandfather and he has lived in the borough for 34 years. Now retired, he had a varied career in public service which included running a textile laboratory, training managers, drafting central policy and dealing with Parliamentary business.

David says: “I have lived during the best times the UK has ever known, in which the finest achievement was the creation of the most cost-effective health service in the world, paid for according to means and free according to need. I am determined to fight the attack on St Helier Hospital, which is part of the current giveaway of the NHS to private companies who will care nothing for the health and wellbeing of the nation.”

Sandra Ash (WImbledon Park Ward, Merton): Sandra is a wife, mother and grandmother, and a retired tutor. She has lived in the borough for more than 30 years. She believes that the threat to vital services at St Helier Hospital, such as A&E, maternity, the children’s hospital and the renal unit, is the biggest single issue facing SW London.

Sandra says: “We want to raise public awareness of this threat to St Helier Hospital and the whole community - it needs to stay on the political agenda. It is for that reason that I have decided to stand as a candidate for the Keep Our St Helier Hospital Party.”

Dave Ash (Cheam, Sutton): Dave has a young family, has lived in borough of Sutton for seven years, and has lived in the area for most of his life. Whenever members of his family have used St Helier Hospital, they have always had excellent care, and he knows that they are not alone in this regard.

Dave says: “I believe that the high quality care at St Helier Hospital represents great value to the taxpayer - the whole community will suffer if we lose any of these services. I oppose any privatisation of NHS services - it is a national asset worth fighting for.”

Photography by Paul McMillan