HEALTH minister Andrew Lansley has challeneged GPs, patients and politicians to produce viable alternative plans for the future of Chase Farm Hospital.

A cross-party delegation of MPs and senior councillors met this lunchtime with Mr Lansley to argue against the proposed downgrading of the north Enfield hospital.

Nick de Bois, Tory MP for Enfield North, said Mr Lansley was “unconvinced” that the proposals to strip Chase Farm of its maternity, children's, and 24-hour A&E services had the support of the public.

Mr de Bois said: “He asked us to take a renewed look at things and come back with fresh ideas and a fresh strategy, which in my view is the way it should have been looked at the first place.

“The onus is now on us to engage with the secretary of state's officials, and, with the local authority leading, speak to local GPs, local people, and the local hospitals to help see what we can come up with.”

The delegation had been formed to oppose the Barnet, Enfield, and Haringey strategy, which had been developed by health trusts in the three boroughs to reconfigure services at Chase Farm, North Middlesex, and Barnet Hospitals.

Mr de Bois added: “The secretary of state has recognised there is a large body of opinion that believes there are other ways of doing things, and so we have got to take up the challenge and get going on it.”

Enfield has around a month to develop fresh ideas for the future of hospital services in the borough, but the delegation left the Westminster meeting upbeat that they had a real chance to protect Chase Farm's services.

Andy Love, Labour MP for Edmonton, said: “Mr Lansley has taken on board the fact that throughout this consultation and previous consultations, there has only been one set of proposals presented.

“There will be quite a lot of minds focusing on this in the next couple of weeks, and we are looking for the lead from Enfield people as to what is the alternative strategy.”

Of the timescale of a month to formulate fresh ideas, Councillor Doug Taylor, leader of Enfield Council, said: “It is extremely challenging but I think there is a problem of creating blight around hospitals if everybody is looking at it but nobody is making decisions.

“We have got to make decisions otherwise Chase Farm will die from inertia, so there has to be a robust timescale to work towards.”