Axe still hangs over Whipps

12 January. No decision has yet been announced as to which proposed "Fit for the Future" health reorganisation options will go for formal public consultation. We are expecting that papers may go to Trust Boards next month and from there to NHS London, the Strategic Health Authority, before three months of public consultation in the spring - but no date has been made pubic. Meanwhile, he need to keep Whipps Cross as a District General Hospital has become more and more obvious even to the majority involved in the official assessment of options.

Irrespective of any scoring system, the facts stand in their own right: that the population of Waltham Forest and surrounding areas need their local District General Hospital based within their community, not 11 miles away through London traffic, and that Whipps Cross is serving us well with high standard specialist services, services that would be lost to the community should Whipps be downgraded.

MPs representing constituencies across the area had a stormy meeting with the PCT chief executives and fit for the future officials. They are calling for a halt to the whole process till a London-wide review.

It now appears Whipps Cross faces another round of cuts this coming year - to save £27 million. The hospital is already at full stretch to provide the care the community need with fewer wards and staff. Meanwhile, community health services, which is supposedly providing the care that is to be moved out of Whipps Cross, has lost 8% of its community nursing staff due to freezes on recruitment.

Local Guardian petition: signatures of 18,515 people were handed in to Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for health.