Update: Jeremy Hunt and the Lewisham court case

This is just a quick update on the Save Lewisham Hospital campaign. A few months ago, we launched a fundraiser to pay for a legal review of Jeremy Hunt’s decision to slash vital services at Lewisham Hospital.

Within 24 hours, thousands of 38 Degrees members from across the country had donated enough to fund an expert legal team and make sure that Hunt’s dangerous plans went in front of a judge. Our response made Lewisham’s local fight a national issue.

The plans went to court a few weeks ago. We don’t know yet what the judge’s decision will be, but we could never have gotten this far without such a brilliant response from 38 Degrees members everywhere. Watching his plans go through judicial review was precisely the outcome Jeremy Hunt was hoping to avoid. But together, we made sure that’s exactly what happened.

Here’s what Dr Louise Irvine, chair of the Save Lewisham Hospital campaign, had to say about the days in court:

“Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign supporters came out in full force during the three day hearing. In fact, so many attended the court on the first day of the review that the case had to be moved to a bigger courtroom, a clear demonstration of how passionate we in Lewisham are about saving our hospital. And of course, a huge part of the reason that we could be there at all was the generosity and belief of 38 Degrees members across the country.”

And Rosa Curling, a solicitor at the firm who took the plans to court, had this to say:

“The support given by so many people to our client’s case was truly wonderful. Each day the court was packed with those who had supported the case with donations of time and money, to which the judge specifically referred in his summing up.”

Once again, we’ve shown that when we work together we can do amazing things. We don’t know if we’ve won yet. But we do know that we’ve helped make Lewisham a national battleground when it could have been a walkover.

We’ll post again when we know the outcome of the court case. In the meantime, you can follow the campaign here.