It all has a familiar ring, and an ominous one.

There is to be public consultation about Health Authority plans to scale down services at a local hospital.

In this case it is the Hillingdon Health Authority and we are talking about Mount Vernon Hospital.

Always beware of grey suits announcing "a programme of change that put patients' needs at the centre of services".

Most of them wouldn't know a patient if they saw one.

Stripped of its elegant language the proposal is to dramatically run down the services at Mount Vernon which has a world wide reputation for plastic surgery and the treatment of burns and cancer.

Public consultation is now taking place about these plans as the law requires.

I've seen it all before, and I'm sure many people on the east side of Harrow remember the bitter fight over Edgware Hospital.

It was difficult to find anyone not in the pay of the health authority who supported the rundown of this hospital. A vast campaign with many protest meetings was organised.

Local politicians -- even the Tories -- fell over themselves to get involved. It became a major issue in the borough elections and then the General Election.

Yet despite all this, and a change of Government, the rundown rolled on remorselessly.

Edgware has lost its accident and emergency unit, which served a wide area including parts of Harrow. It now has a minor accidents unit which takes only the walking wounded (no ambulances). The only surgery done is day surgery (warts and carbuncles) as you must go home the same night.

Claims that this provides a better service for the public are arrant nonsense. These changes were simply about a stony broke hospital trust desperately trying to save money.

And the pattern repeats itself across London.

The skids have been under Mount Vernon since 1994 when its lost its accident service. In recent years the money simply hasn't been spent to keep the hospital up to scratch.

Britain is not a poor country and there is no compelling reason why many much-loved hospitals should be sent to the wall. It is all about hard-nosed financial policies which start in Whitehall, and two-faced politicians who pretend the local consequences are nothing to with them.

I will make a cast iron prediction. The protests about the rundown of Mount Vernon will reach a climax of fury. There will be demonstrations and petitions, vigils and prayers.

And it won't make a blind bit of difference. The grey suits will ignore the lot and press on regardless.

Sorry, but that's the world we live in today.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.