A HISTORIC hospital should lose its full A&E department as soon as possible, a health tsar has said.

Ageing Queen Mary’s Sidcup (QMS), which pioneered plastic surgery after the First World War, is to be downgraded to an urgent care centre and day surgery unit under proposals endorsed by Prof Sir George Alberti.

The NHS' national clinical director for emergency access has outlined his vision to revamp health services across the borders of Kent and London, based on the recommendations of the region's medical directors.

The new PFI-built Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) in Orpington will be one of the two main beneficiaries if the consultation goes ahead as planned, in January.

It would be upgraded to become one of two major acute hospitals, or 'hot sites', along with the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in south east London.

Lewisham Hospital would be downgraded over the next five years.

Acute patients currently taken to Queen Mary’s would in future be divided between the PRUH and Darenth Valley Hospital, Dartford.

Prof Alberti said: "QMS has the poorest staffing and the smallest volume and could be absorbed into one of the other acute trusts."

He added: "We support the view of concentrating acute services on fewer sites as soon as possible. It seems feasible to move these from QMS in the near future with care for the elderly and an ambulatory care centre for children, as well as an urgent care centre, remaining on site."

Prof Alberti stressed that none of the four hospitals would be closed, as has been reported in some publications.

NHS chiefs are convinced that no change is not an option as advances in medicine and a growing population due to the Thames Gateway development put more strains on the service.

But they say that the proposed changes are clinically driven to improve patient care rather than primarily motivated by saving money.

Full story in next week's Bexley and Bromley Extra.