Esther Obiri-Darko, Green Party candidate for the high profile Tooting by-election, joined Green MP Caroline Lucas on Monday 23 May to petition Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health, to reopen the women’s clinics at St George’s Hospital.
St George’s University Hospital is one of the largest and most important hospitals in the country, treating thousands of patients a day. Last year the women’s clinic at the hospital was moved to Croydon, leaving women and children in Wandsworth without specialist hospital care.
Obiri-Darko has promised to make restoring the women’s clinic to Tooting one of her priorities if she is elected as MP in next month’s by-election.
Obiri-Darko said:
“Women and children in Wandsworth rightly feel abandoned and cut-adrift by the decision to close down their hospital clinic. Residents could be proud of the size and quality of treatment offered by St. George’s whose staff managed issues from paediatric to adolescent safeguarding through to Female Genital Mutilation. Those services are now gone but if the people of Tooting choose to elect me I will make bringing them back my first priority. I was honoured today to be joined by the wonderful Caroline Lucas MP. With more Greens in Parliament we will protect our NHS.”
Caroline Lucas MP said:
"Having worked with Esther on this campaign I can say one thing for certain: if the people of Tooting elect her, they will be choosing for themselves an amazing community champion. While Jeremy Hunt is prepared to play games with the health of women and children in Wandsworth, Esther is not going to let this issue drop. She has already achieved a great deal outside of Parliament - just imagine which she could do as an MP."