A PETITION to reinstall Solihull’s Accident and Emergency Department has been set up after a 21-year-old suffered chest pains.
James Harvey is calling on Solihull MP Julian Knight to lobby the new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, to bring back the department which closed over six years ago.
James wrote on his page: “On my 21st birthday my chest started to feel tight and I felt really light headed.
“We called 111 before just to get a measure for what was going on and after checking my symptoms they advised me to go to A&E, this is where the problem lies.
“In the state I was in I immediately thought of Solihull as the nearest A&E. However the women on the phone assured me that Solihull did not have an A&E department.
“In this moment I started to feel a lot more anxious and uncoincidentally I started to feel worse.”
In the past two weeks James has collected more than 1,500 signatures with many saying it is needed for the borough and its growing population.
James added: “I can’t imagine how people with worse problems than myself would feel about this long journey so I stress to Julian Knight (even though I know he tried his hardest before the closure) to lobby our new PM and whoever possesses the influence to make this change to include a new A&E department in Solihull as part of the PM’s implementations.”
Hospital bosses admitted in 2013 that despite the signage saying so, there has not been a full and proper A&E at Solihull for many years – with A&E services dwindling bit by bit over the past two decades.
In 2015 Solihull Council installed red and white ‘H’ signs to replace road signs with A&E on them across the borough regarding the Lode Lane site.
In 2016 Solihull Hospital opened its Urgent Care Centre and brought together all urgent care services under one roof within the hospital, to continue to provide a ‘robust urgent’ primary care service, as well as a booked primary care service.
The Urgent Primary Care service provides an urgent ‘see and treat’ service for patients with minor illnesses and injuries, without a prior booked appointment.
Since the closure of A&E at Lode Lane the nearest A&E departments have been at Heartlands Hospital in Bordesley Green or Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
The closure came while Solihull Hospital was under the management of the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (HEFT).
Last April HEFT merged with University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust to form one of the largest hospital trusts in England.
For more or to sign the petition visit https://www.change.org/p/julian-knight-solihull-council-and-westminster-reinstall-solihull-s-a-e-department
