AS A councillor’s daughter was lying in A&E last night, council members gave their full support to the service that saved her life.

The fight to save Sidcup Queen Mary’s accident and emergency unit became “personal” for Cllr Sharon Massey yesterday after her daughter collapsed in the hospital.

As her daughter recovered under the watchful eye of staff at the unit last night, Cllr Massey expressed her gratitude and support for the department at the full council meeting.

In a petition to fellow members she said: “Bexley residents are concerned about the future of Queen Mary’s Hospital. The hospital has had serious budget and debt problems for a number of years and they have worked extraordinarily hard to rectify this.

“We now have a local hospital providing excellent medical cover at a reasonable cost to the NHS.

“The London Borough of Bexley supports our local hospital, Queen Mary’s, and will oppose any plans to reduce vital services, particularly in the accident and emergency and maternity unit.”

Tearfully she added: “It’s always been right to fight for our A&E and for our maternity, but now it’s personal.”

Cllr Massey’s daughter collapsed in the accident and emergency department of Queen Mary’s 20 minutes after arriving there from school yesterday afternoon.

Cllr Massey said: “If she had collapsed in my car on the way to Lewisham or Woolwich I wouldn’t have known what to do. Thankfully I got her to Queen Mary’s, but I would not have got her to anywhere else in time.

“The idea is that the A&E will be run down and we’ll only have an urgent care centre open between 8am and midnight. What do we do for the rest of the time?

“What we don’t want is the urgent care centre to be the only thing Queen Mary’s has. We can’t go without an A&E.”

Other councillors and cabinet members added their support to Cllr Massey’s petition, expressing concerns about not having these necessary services available inside the borough.

The council agreed unanimously to pass the petition urging residents of Bexley to reply to the consultations due to be launched in January.