Alicia’s story:
PERSONAL THANKS TO THE WHITTINGTON A AND E DEPARTMENT:
My elder son developed acute appendicitis and we had to rush him in a minicab to the Whittington. He was in agony and every second counted.
We were terrified that his appendix would burst but the A and E were wonderful and, I think, probaby saved his life. When he was badly beaten up on the Archway Road and his face was “like a football” because of the kicking he had endured, they were enormously supportive and restored him. My family are so grateful to the dedication and professionalism of the Whittington.
Lynne Featherstone 
I am desperately worried that there is a possibility Whittington A&E could close. As the mother of one-and-a-half-year old twin boys, I suspect I will be needing to use it.
I have visited A&E twice in the last two years, once due to possible miscarriage and once due to illness of one of my babies. Bothe times I was treated well.
Since I don’t own a car, on these occasions I tried to get a taxi, but none were available for 30 mins and so I travelled to A&E by bus getting there door-to-door in 20 mins. If I were to have to travel to the Royal Free it would be impossible by public transport (taking perhaps an hour as it’s 2 or 3 buses) and by taxi would take a lot longer and it’s likely I wouldn’t have enough money in the house for much higher fare – stopping off at a cash machine would be another detour and more time wasted. Realistically, I can imagine having to call an ambulance as the only way to get to A&E even if the incident was not life-threatening. As for a life-threatening incident the extra travel time by ambulance or car is even more worrying.
Please remember that not everyone has a car or can afford long taxi journeys in the middle of the night.
I am also seriously worried about the implication that other services could be moved away. Getting to the Royal Free would be very difficult from where I live. I have already have to leave a course of treatment at St Anne’s Hospital in Tottenham because it takes 1 hour 15 mins each way and I have two young babies. Not being able to access other treatments currently available at the Whittington would be a big problem.
It would have been traumatic to take the tube to use UCH instead of the Whittington for maternity services , or example, as by the end of my pregnancy I could barely walk yet had to attend several times a week.
I’m no one important, just a mum, but I hope my opinion counts.
Thanks so much for sharing your story, Michelle ! Your situation shows how crazy the proposition is to close the A&E and other services.
You might think you are just a mum and no one important. Well, so am I. And so are many thousands of others in North London.
Can these NHS bureaucracts really look all of us in the eyes and say that tens of thousands of people don’t count?