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| Campaigning Against the Closures |
The BBC are reporting the longest A&E waits are in North West London. Brent Fightback and Save Our NHS, along with Ealing and Hammersmith hospital campaigners warned against the closure of Accident and emergency wards, including Central Middlesex. LINK
Our concerns have been vindicated.
Patients requiring emergency treatment in north-west London had the longest waits in the country.
London North West Hospital Trust failed to see 32.2% of its
patients within four hours during the week ending 19 October, and 26.7%
the following week.Labour London Assembly member Dr Onkar Sahota said the two "dangerous" results could be connected to the closure of two local A&E departments.
The Trust said it understood "where change is required".
The figures obtained by the
Labour Party show the trust performing below the national average, which
stood at 11.2% and 9.4% respectively during the two weeks highlighted.
In a statement the trust said: "We are working with our healthcare partners... to address specific issues relating to capacity, attendances and delays in discharging patients from hospital.
"Agreed actions are in place to improve performance which includes plans for 70 additional beds at Northwick Park Hospital."
Dr Sahota, a practising GP, said the closure of Central Middlesex and Hammersmith A&E departments in September had put west London hospitals under "unbearable pressure".
The GP said: "Despite consistent warnings, the mayor and government have refused to recognise the dangerous impact these closures have had.
"We can only hope that with the message now devastatingly clear, they will take urgent action to help get A&E services in North West London back on track."
In August the health watchdog the Care Quality Commission said staff across the trust "were found to be caring and compassionate" but that some patients at Northwick Park Hospital were being discharged too early because of the patient flow through its A&E department.
6 comments:
At the heart of all this is the 'Shaping a Healthier Future' (SaHF) programme dreamt up by a bunch of CV-building chancers.
In short, SaHF was all about cuts in services though it was, of course, packaged as improvements and underpinned by such meaningless slogans as “better care closer to home”. [So, if I live next door to the hospital, does that mean that MY “better care closer to home” will be delivered in my front room? Only asking....]
These clever-clogs decided that they could best save money by employing a load of highly paid consulting firms and consultants (shades of Brent Council although I haven't actually met anyone ex-Ofsted ….yet) to consult with us, the everyday folk who pay their overblown salaries and fees from money that should rightfully be spent on patient care.
Anyway, they 'consulted' us and we told them (amongst other things) that:
- we were concerned about the impact of the proposals on accessing services (journey times and public transport accessibility)
- we were opposed to services closing
- we were concerned about the capacity and ability of hospital and out-of-hospital services to meet demand and support change
- we were unhappy about the actual consultation process
But did they listen?
Now, where was I? Ah yes, apparently we are all to be saved by a whole raft of community services that would keep us well and prevent us having to pitch up at A and E where we could spend many happy hours sitting on hard plastic chairs just to take our minds off the pain and discomfort that we had arrived with.
The trouble with the community services is that they are not as yet developed to the extent that they can appropriately complement and substitute for institutional (hospital) care or provide adequately for those in the community who are dependent on support.
Now pay attention - in the world of management and consulting, this closing down of one service before another service is ready to step in and cover the gap is what they call STRATEGIC PLANNING.
And here's the thing – the so-called health watchdogs (as we saw in Mid-Staffs) are as effective as sleeping poodles, so it is left to us (left- and right- wing) public and patient representatives, to keep up the pressure and continue highlighting the common-sense concerns which appear to be of little interest to those in charge.
There is a general election looming and although the NHS should be high on the agenda, everyone who has so far had charge of the health service has betrayed the trust place in them.
Nan Tewari
Harness locality Patient Participation Group
info@brentppg.org.uk
Exemplary as usual, Nan. You've put the specific into the context of the general and explained how, and from whom, this stuff comes about.
Gives us some dates, though, so we can attach it to particular stages of the sorry tale and the individual regimes and individuals responsible.
Mike Hine
Dear Mike,
Have just recollected a piece Martin did last December that may help. I fear I may lose the will to live if I have to recount the sorry history of the SaHF so-called consultation.
http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/alernative-uses-proposed-for-central.html
Historical headlines for Shaping a Healthier future:
- Consultation Closes: 8th October, 2012
- Consideration of responses concludes: Early 2013
- Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts makes final decisions on changes to services: Early 2013
- Implementation of Shaping a Healthier Future (if agreed): 2013-2016.
First published Friday 28 September 2012 in Ealing Times by Danielle Mendel
FUNDAMENTAL flaws in the NHS plans to downgrade Ealing Hospital are being claimed by a health expert.
Former health service executive Tim Rideout was commissioned by Ealing Council to carry out an independent review of changes to Ealing Hospital, which would involve it losing nine of its 11 services, including accident and emergency. Three other A&E departments in the area would also be lost.
Mr Rideout considers the plans hurried and unrealistic. He says the public consultation is inadequate and the proposals are not driven by a desire to meet the health needs of patients in the borough.
A key concern is that the local health system will not be able to cope with the scale of change. The standard of healthcare, he says, may drop as patients are forced to go to hospitals providing a poorer service - and there could be a significant loss of clinical expertise.
The increase in travel time for emergency patients is also a worry to him.
The NHS proposals, he says, rely on primary and community health services which are not currently in place. Plans to improve these services are not due to be implemented until after Ealing has been downgraded.
The report will be considered at a public meeting in the Queen’s Hall, Ealing Town Hall at 3pm next Friday, October 5.
First published Friday 28 September 2012 in Ealing Times by Danielle Mendel
FUNDAMENTAL flaws in the NHS plans to downgrade Ealing Hospital are being claimed by a health expert.
Former health service executive Tim Rideout was commissioned by Ealing Council to carry out an independent review of changes to Ealing Hospital, which would involve it losing nine of its 11 services, including accident and emergency. Three other A&E departments in the area would also be lost.
Mr Rideout considers the plans hurried and unrealistic. He says the public consultation is inadequate and the proposals are not driven by a desire to meet the health needs of patients in the borough.
A key concern is that the local health system will not be able to cope with the scale of change. The standard of healthcare, he says, may drop as patients are forced to go to hospitals providing a poorer service - and there could be a significant loss of clinical expertise.
The increase in travel time for emergency patients is also a worry to him.
The NHS proposals, he says, rely on primary and community health services which are not currently in place. Plans to improve these services are not due to be implemented until after Ealing has been downgraded.
The report will be considered at a public meeting in the Queen’s Hall, Ealing Town Hall at 3pm next Friday, October 5.
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