Pic: Lautel Okhio
At least 25,000 protesters marched from Central Lewisham to Mountsfield Park to demonstrate against proposals to close Lewisham Hospital’s A&E department. Eastlondonlines followed the protest throughout the day.
LBCs Nick Ferrari along with hospital consultant Dr John O’Donohue welcomed the demonstrators to Mountsfield Park and introduced key medical speakers including Dr Chidi Ejifomo A&E Consultant, Dr John Lister from London Health Emergency and chair of the campaign, local GP Dr Louise Irvine along with Heidi Alexander MP who has headed up the 40,000 signature petition.
Video round-up of the day
The Protest trails off into the distance.
At 25,000, the turnout for the event was much larger than expected. The photo below shows a small part of the protest:
The Community is united.
Local businesses took the oppportunity to show their support for the protest:
Protest Songs.
Some protesters chanted "Save Lewisham Hospital, Save the A&E" while others adapted songs from television:
The march passes Lewisham hospital.
As the march passed the hospital, hospital workers waved at protesters. The photo shows a nurse from radiology and a children's consultant standing outside the hospital:
The consultant (standing on the right) said: "It makes you wanna cry, the support people are showing right now really makes me cry. People obviously really care. When you work somewhere for so long you forget that people are. We will be affected because our children's emergency hospital department will be destroyed if this goes through"
Festival Atmosphere at park.
The march finished off with speeches and stalls. There was a carnival atmosphere despite the cold and the mud. This photo shows a carnival game where participants are invited to hit Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt with a mallet:
Coverage of the day is available on our liveblog
