Was a 'consultation' reaching only 42 people an adequate basis on which to reduce the hours of Central Middlesex Urgent Treatment Centre by 3 hours a day?

 When London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust issued a press release the day AFTER they reduced the hours of the Central Middlesex Hospital  Urgent Treatment Centre they said:

We gave local people an opportunity to share their views on the new opening hours through online and in-person public events and an online questionnaire. These did not result in any substantial or widespread objections. 

Therefore, to optimise the service the opening times have now changed from 8am to midnight, to 8am to 9pm

The highlighted claim without any detail interested me, after all 570 Brent residents has signed a petition calling for Brent Scrutiny Committee to examine the proposal - a scrutiny that had never taken place except for an item tagged onto the end of a meeting without any public notice on the agenda or any papers attached - just a chat by the Trust CEO. When the petition was presented Cllr Ketan Sheth, Chair of the Committee, merely said the hours reduction was 'on their radar'. 

The reduction in hours was then implemented.

Give the claim above. I submitted an FOI asking for more details of the result of the consultation. Such consultations are normally published with tables of results, publication of comments received and an anaylsis.

The FOI revealed the following:

1. Only 42 responses were received

2.  70% of responses came from Brent (other boroughs were Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon and Hounslow)

3.  41%  of respondents said the reduction in hours would have a significant impact on them

4.  Only two people turned up to the in-person events. 

5. The Chair of Scrutiny had been informed of the proposal. 

I am sure it will be claimed that the low response rate meant that people were not bothered by the proposal, but that is challenged by the number of people (570 against 42) who signed the online petition on the Brent Council website. Unlike a paper petition there is a several stage process to sign on-line - you HAVE to be concerned to bother to sign.

Such a low response rate on a proposal that will affect hundreds of people, now and in the future, must mean that the consultation itself was inadequate. The petition was advertised on Wembley Matters, Next Door and social media and appears to have reached more than 10 times the number that the Trust engaged.

You will notice below that the response does not fully answer the request. Were there really no comments from NW London ICB or Brent Healthwatch?

 

THE TRUST'S FOI RESPONSE 

1. Please supply full results from the consultation on the reduction in hours of the Urgent Treatment Centre at Central Middlesex Hospital. This to include reports, statistics and comments made by organisations or individuals (latter names redacted) - https://www.lnwh.nhs.uk/news/new-opening-hours-at-urgent-treatment-centre-12430 

A structured public engagement exercise was carried out to gather views on the proposed change to the opening hours of the Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) at Central Middlesex Hospital. As part of this process, a questionnaire was utilised to obtain public opinion, alongside opportunities for involvement through online events and stakeholder communications. 

 

Questionnaire responses

 

The questionnaire received 42 responses

 

Respondents’ borough	Brent	Ealing	Harrow	Hillingdon	Hounslow
Percentage	70%	20%	3%	2%	3%

 

Understanding the impact of proposed change: If the UTC  were to close earlier at 9pm, how would this affect you or those you care for?
	No impact	Minor impact	Significant impact	Unsure
Percentage	15%	21%	41%	23%

 

For those who felt it would have a significant impact on them, the reason given in most cases was the perceived lack of nearby alternative provision or the time it would take to travel to another site. However, most of these respondents had attended the UTC in the previous six months for a minor illness or infection that would have been more appropriately seen by a pharmacist or GP. This aligns with a recent review of the Trust’s urgent care services that found that many patients who visit our urgent treatment centres out of hours would be more appropriately seen in a primary care or pharmacy setting.

Several respondents noted that the lack of radiology services after 8pm meant that they had not been able to access care at the UTC after this time. This reflects the case for change and optimising the service to match the provision of X-ray services at Central Middlesex Hospital.

Nearly all respondents said clear information and direction to alternative services, such as pharmacies and out-of-hours services, would help them access the right care.

Public involvement events

Despite extensive promotion* our involvement events only attracted two people, who asked several questions but did not express any particular views on the proposal.

* Promotional activity

• Trust website and social media channels
• Trust’s stakeholder bulletin (350 recipients)
• Posters at the UTC.
• Press release generated coverage in My London, EALING.NEWS and Wembley Matters blog
• The North West London ICB and Brent Healthwatch also promoted opportunities to be involved.
• Letters to key stakeholders (MPs, scrutiny leads, Healthwatches)

Amandine Alexandre, a Green Party candidate for the Harlesden and Kensal ward whose resident are likely to be impacted by the earlier  closure, said:

 

The London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust probably knew right from the start that closing the Urgent Treatment Centre at 9pm rather than midnight every day was unlikely to be a decision approved by patients and deliberately failed to engage a large number of them in the consultation. However, trying to bypass patients is not an acceptable way to treat people. 

 

The fact that Brent Scrutiny Committee appeared intensely relaxed about residents getting reduced access to the Urgent Care Treatment is also a serious cause of concern for anyone living in Brent. I would like to reassure fellow residents : the Green Party will never cease speaking up in defence of NHS patients in the face of austerity and disdain from the current authorities.

The Art of Campaigning: Furness schoolchildren say 'Time to Stop Air Pollution'

 Furness Primary children stand proudly in front of their sign (Credit: Amandine Alexandre)

 

Children at Furness Primary school had a point to make and, on Tuesday 26th April 2022, in front of a group of parents, teachers and candidates to the local elections, they made it very clearly and eloquently. 

 

The pupils of the school located in the Harlesden and Kensal Green ward unveiled the clean air artwork they have created as part of a joint Mums for Lungs and Lin Kam Art’ project. 

 

The message displayed on the artwork they created with Harlesden born artist Linett Kamala is an injunction rather than a plea : ‘Time to stop air pollution’ is the slogan Year 5 pupils chose to have across the 5 panels of their text-based artwork and is a powerful message to tackle air pollution. 

 

‘Less pollution, less driving, care for your health’, ‘Cars cause pollution, we need to find a solution', ‘We need to act now’ are some of the messages inscribed in red and black on the boards installed on Palermo road near Willesden Junction station that will get the attention of passers-by for the next weeks. 

 

The urgency to act on air pollution locally was also voiced by some of the Year 5 pupils. 

 

 

Photo: Amandine Alexandre

 

 

‘Some people such as myself suffer from asthma. (...) This can result in finding it difficult to breathe and suffering asthma attacks. We must act as a community now’, 9 year old Aya declared during the unveiling ceremony. 

 

Her fellow pupils Ahmed and Samuel also made the most of the opportunity to get their message across to Councillor Mili Patel, independent candidate Wassim Badru and Green candidate Eugenia Barnett all present at the event. ‘As our elected representatives, how do you seek to improve the quality of air in Brent?’, Ahmed enquired. 

 

Mili Patel, one of the outgoing councillors standing for re-election and a former pupil of Furness Primary, assured the children that she wanted to work with them on ways to reduce air pollution in the area. “As someone who grew up locally, now raising a family, I understand the need for better air quality in Harlesden (...)”, the Labour candidate later reiterated on Twitter. 

 

The artist Linett Kamala who led the workshops said “the project we carried out with Furness Primary school pupils made it clear that the pupils were eager to find out about the impact of air pollution on their health and make a call for action through their artwork”. Mums for Lungs clean air campaigner Amandine Alexandre commented. “They are also acutely aware that solutions exist that will reduce air pollution drastically for the sake of everyone”, the Harlesden resident and mum added. 

 

The Furness Primary school clean air art project is one of 4 school projects led by Mums for Lungs and Linett Kamala in Brent as a result of the first round of participatory budgeting, #YouDecide, organised by Brent council last January. It is one of 8 projects that Brent residents decided should benefit from the pot 2 of the Carbon Offset Fund. 

 

After the event, Eugenia Barnett,  Green candidate for Harlesden and Kensal Green told Wembley Matters:

It was a pleasure to be invited by Furness Primary school to the unveiling of clean air art work created by pupils in collaboration with Lin Kim Art and Mums for Lungs. For decades, Harlesden air pollution has been in the top 10 highest in the UK.  Imperial College  published their air pollution level report in 2021 report which marked Harlesden as the town with the highest pollution levels in the country - the nitrogen dioxide here can reach  4 times the levels approved as appropriate by WHO. At the same time, Harlesden has quite a high concentration of schools, where children perform PE outdoors. For these valid reasons, air pollution must be tackled in Harlesden and Kensal Green. We know that solutions do exist. I will lobby personally with local community groups to pressure Brent and London councils to improve the situation to ensure that our children grow up in the healthier environment. Brent Greens have endorsed Mums for Lungs' 'Five Asks.'