General election: I'd review A&E closures' says Andy Burnham

Plans to downgrade two A&E departments and axe a maternity unit in west London would be reviewed by a Labour government, shadow health secretary Andy Burnham has vowed.

He said the changes at Charing Cross and Ealing hospitals would be halted pending a new consultation.

A contentious programme is centralising emergency services at five “super-hospitals”, with Central Middlesex and Hammersmith losing A&Es last year.

Ealing Hospital is due to lose maternity services this summer, with its casualty department, and that at Charing Cross, set to be replaced with minor injuries units.

Hospitals such as Northwick Park, Hillingdon, St Mary’s, and Chelsea & Westminster, which are having to cope with extra patients, have been criticised by the Care Quality Commission.

Mr Burnham told a rally: “One of the biggest failures of this Government has been the closures in north-west London. Labour will call an immediate halt to further changes [and] launch a clinical review that properly takes the views of patients on board.”