BOUNCERS were drafted in by Hillingdon Health bosses to help keep order at a public meeting on the future of Mount Vernon Hospital.

The extra security was drafted in by heath authority chief executive Mr David Panter, before he addressed the meeting, on Thursday, August 13, about the controversial plans for the hospital.

He was concerned the meeting, at St Helen's School, Northwood, would get out of control, but members of the audience saw the move as heavy-handed.

Mrs Jenny Grillo from Croxley Green, said: "It was really very unpleasant.

"They were quite intimidating, very big blokes all in black suits with walkie talkies and these strange ear pieces.

"They were certainly not there to help people, because one person asked them to help find them somewhere to park and they said they could not do that.

"I do not understand why the authority got them in. To be fair, they did have thousands of people turn up to a meeting held in Ruislip before, but you are not going to get a roomful of rowdies in Northwood; these are genteel people."

The security guards are usually employed at the civic centre, Uxbridge.

Mr Panter said: "They were not bouncers, they were a professional security firm.

"At the last public meeting, we had 2,000 people turn up and we were criticised for not having appropriate people to deal with that.

"So now we have these people at all our meetings to help people find seats and that sort of thing, and at other meetings they have been very favourably received.

"Clearly in Northwood one or two people felt it was not needed but we did not know how many people would turn up."

The meeting heard Mr Panter outline the proposed changes at Mount Vernon, which may be destined to become a community hospital with most of its clinical services moved elsewhere.

One of the most unpopular proposals would see half the hospital's acclaimed plastic surgery and burns units moved to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Mount Vernon's plastic surgery and burns staff are united in their opposition to the possible move.

Mr Adriaan Grobbelaar, consultant plastic surgeon at Mount Vernon, has written to patients urging them to oppose the changes.

He said of the proposed changes: "I and my plastic surgery consultant colleagues believe this will provide a vastly inferior service to our patients.

"We do not believe the proposed service at Chelsea and Westminster will provide either the quality of care, accessibility or capacity currently provided by Mount Vernon.

"In addition, the other services at Mount Vernon currently supported by plastic surgery, particularly the cancer service, will be undermined."

But Hillingdon Health Authority's preferred option is to move the children's burns and plastic surgery unit to Chelsea and Westminster, because Mount Vernon does not have paediatric facilities or an accident and emergency service.

Mr Panter said: "More than 50 per cent of all burns victims are children and we do not have the support services at Mount Vernon to go with the burns unit.

"If a child suffers burns injuries, a burns specialist will deal with it but there may be other health problems which are a side effect and currently at Mount Vernon that has to be provided by somebody coming from outside.

"The plastic surgery and burns doctors would prefer to move the whole service to Northwick Park Hospital, which does have the paediatric support.

"But we do not support that idea because the other problem we have is that we now only see 180 people a year at the burns unit at Mount Vernon, and that makes it a very small unit.

"If it is combined with Chelsea and Westminster, it will become the second largest burns unit in the country.

"And it is our view that we need a larger burns unit because you need to keep up the number of patients so the doctors keep the skills up.

"If we moved to Northwick Park we would be moving to another small site."

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