KEEPING EYE ON FUTURE AS INFIRMARY SHUTS

22-02-2007

There's just a week to go before Wolverhampton's famous Eye Infirmary is finally shut and transferred to New Cross hospital - but the man who led the campaign to keep it open insists the battle wasn't in vain.

The Infirmary will finally shut it's doors next Thursday, and its replacement in Wednesfield will open the following Monday, March 5.

Cllr Malcolm Gwinnett who fought against the closure admitted that the new facility will actually be better than the old one thanks to the intense public scrutiny he and others put on the local heath trust.

“They originally wanted to spend just £2.5 million, but in the end they've had to spend £4.5 million. They wanted second hand theatres, but we said ‘oh no you
don't' and we made sure they replaced all the piping on health and safety grounds.

“If we hadn't had the battle, we would have had a second rate service. Now we'll have a first rate service that's probably better than what we have now.”

Gwinnett recalled that hospital chief executive David Laughton called him, “the most hated politician in Wolverhampton” because of the campaign.

“That's what he and his colleagues might have though” he laughed. “But it's not what the public were telling me.”