Tuesday 19 March 2013

Health and housing on the agenda tonight

Brent's Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee will be asked by local campaigners to refer the proposal to close Central Middlesex A&E to the Secretary of State at this evening's meeting. Ealing Council has already taken this step which has drawn an irritated response from NW London NHS:

Ealing Council has asked the Secretary of State for  Health to consider the programme. This is a shame, as  this process normally takes a few months and will d elay implementation of much needed improvements to local services which the majority of clinicians, local GP s and other local councils want to see go ahead.
Of course many residents think it is a 'shame' that we may lose out local A&E, especially when the alternative facility, Northwick Park, is already over-loaded.  A local resident has written to Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt putting her views:

Dear Cllr. Butt,

I am a resident of Brent and Brent should be fighting on behalf of their residents to keep all four Hospitals A&E departments open.  Urgent care centres are not acceptable they are not manned by many doctors or nurses, and are no alternative to an A&E unit.   How far will Brent residents have to go to the nearest A&E dept? will they be seen? How long will they have to wait?  This will put their lives at risk.  
 
St Marys Hospital Paddington, Northwick Park Middlesex A&E depts. are already full with the present numbers they deal with, how will closing four A&E's in North West London help the people of Brent?.

I have had two operations this year in Charring Cross Hospital, this hospital is to be sold off for real estate. Charring Cross Hospital services the people of Brent, I was sent there as St Marys Paddington do not have the facilities or the beds to cope.

The NHS was founded by the labour government in 1948, I expect a labour council to look after all its residents North and South of the borough and back Ealing borough council in fighting to keep all four A&E departments open. Emergency's, Maternity and the Ageing population are all at risk

Yours sincerely
Margaret von Stoll
Apart from the important issues of the future of Accident and Emergency services in the area and the Shaping the Healthier Future proposals, the Committee will also discuss and question NHS officers on failures in local pathology services:
A serious incident was logged in December 2012 after a concern was raised by a GP about the new system. It became clear that this was not an isolated case, and another GP complained of spurious results, missing results and samples not  processed. It was further identified that training for GPs had not taken place and that  alleged meetings with GPs had not in reality occurred. A number of issues have now been identified with different test results and these are listed in the report.
 As as health campaigners are attending the Committee, housing campaigners will be at Mencap in Willesden High Road for a meeting starting at 6.30pm to discuss strategies for dealing with the deepening housing crisis in the borough. Details were published earlier on this blog and can be found HERE

3 comments:

Trevor said...

I Believe That Margaret is wasting her time because surely enough Time has passed for us to Know The people that supposedly run this country?
how many of you if you were prime minister of this country allow cigarettes to continue being sold and consumed when you know that smoking not only severely damages health but also adds a financial burden to the cost of treating people with Health severely damaged from years of self abuse aka Smoking onto the NHS?
you wouldn't would you?
after all look at the way the government is bringing reforms that will cause many to end up homeless etc etc.
and yet the government if questioned would surely say that now is the time for tough action because the country is in debt.
fair enough but that surely inspires the obvious question why has it taken so long for the government to start taking tough action to tackle the debt problem?
also surely that means that the Former labour government were misleading us and deluding themselves when they came in in 97 claiming things would get better?
surely they knew about the debt problem?
so why didn't they tell us the truth that instead of things getting better they would get worse?
some would say that getting the truth from a political party is comparable to a person attempting to get blood from a stone.
I tend to share that view.
Government after government in this Country alone have taken public health for granted.
and so we should not be surprised to find that the current government are planning to close down several A+E departments
even though the chances are they know that that will have a negative effect on the standards of health care in this country.
again I refer to the fact that smoking alone causes no end of deaths in this country alone as well as causing the NHS healthcare budget to increase in order to treat the huge amounts requiring treatment caused from smoking.
Now if you have a government that is willing to profit before principle that then creates no end of problems physical and financial
can we expect that government to take any notice of people like Margaret?

Trevor said...

I really feel sorry for the public because we are under the rule of greed driven reckless intentionally ignorant wicked politicians.
David Cameron does not realize that he is a immensely ignorant person...He may be a millionaire but so what?
We deserve so much better than him and his mob...When will the public stop giving these hypocrites their support?
Look what happened when the public gave support to the then untested labour party...they promised us much and delivered little but made sure they filled up their bank accounts while they were in charge by misusing the expenses system.
and look what happened to a former MP who broke the law and Tried to get away with it by persuading his ex wife to lie in court
and this was someone who was a member of parliament!
to me that speaks volumes about the British government no matter which political party they belong to.
again and again they put profit before principle that is why people are suffering and the country is in such a mess and to see and hear that David Cameron standing up and Talking like he can deliver us out of this mess just makes me want to vomit.

Anonymous said...

Stop voting for Cons/Lab/Libs they do not listen and are not honest on their mandates.

Any Brent Councillor who does not support the NHS keeping open the 4 A&E departments in North West London for Brent Residents, I will not be voting for.