Open Letter to Cllr Ketan Sheth: Hydrotherapy Pool closure needs effective scrutiny

 Cllr Sheth's article (Brent & Kilburn Times 21.8.25)

The Northwick Park Hydrotherapy Pool will close at the end of this week. Wembley Matters has received an  Open Letter  from a patient.

 

29^th August 2025

 

Dear Councillor Sheth,

 

Re: Hydrotherapy Pool Closure

 

I have read your statement about the closure of the hydrotherapy pool, which contains a number of misconceptions and inaccuracies. As the Chair of the Scrutiny and Wellbeing Committee* you need to scrutinise this decision on behalf of Brent patients.  However, you have simply repeated the position put forward by the Trust.  Misinformation was provided by the CEO of the trust who admitted at a meeting with physiotherapy staff that she had consulted no-one, staff, patients nor the public, about the implications of the closure upon patients; she said that she had made the decision herself and would stick with it regardless.

 

 

A Freedom of Information Request to the trust has revealed that in 2024-5 the pool was used by 617 new medical referral patients [who get three sessions each before being charged], plus  a total of 7493 who paid for individual sessions at the pool, so it is obvious that a large number of patients have been benefiting from this facility.  This means that 9344 treatment sessions were provided to patients in that year, which comes to around 200 patients being helped each week of opening. The pool is open for 22 half-hour sessions weekly, totaling eleven hours, so there is scope for more users to be accommodated and possibly for a wider range of needs to be accommodated also.

 

Contrary to information released by the Trust, we are not private users. We have all been referred to the pool by hospital consultants, physiotherapists, and doctors.  Many of us are awaiting or recovering from surgical procedures and it is vital that we obtain and keep body strength to avoid damage from falls. Others have long-term conditions which can involve muscle wastage or persistent pain. Hydrotherapy assists all of these conditions. It needs to be provided in a warm pool under medical supervision.  Because after three sessions we are asked to contribute to the cost does not make us private users.  My consultant told me that I was ‘still acute’ after a year of therapy.  When we go to an NHS dentist we fill out a form and are asked for a financial contribution. This does not make us ‘private users’ who it seems that according to the CEO of the trust, do not matter and have no relevant needs.

 

The possibility of the pool being run by a private or charitable provider has not been explored at all by the hospital trust, who say that this would be an ‘inappropriate use’ of a facility for NHS patients.  However, the Aspire Leisure Centre with its specialist pool is located within the grounds of the National Orthopedic Hospital and is run as a charity. [It has been suggested that Northwick Park patients use this pool, but it is not heated to the same temperature and has no physiotherapist led sessions.]  It is also one and a half hours journey from this area by bus and there is no indication that they have the capacity to take-on patients from Northwick Park Hospital. The Royal Orthopedic Hospital in Birmingham has a hydrotherapy facility run for them by a private provider, so there are other examples to explore for a solution in Brent and Harrow. Our pool is open for 22 half hour sessions weekly, totaling eleven hours, so there is scope for more users to be accommodated.

 

 

No consultation has been carried out, and not a single word has been communicated to patients. We first knew about withdrawal of the service by a petition posted on the hospital wall. We have had no letters to say our service is cancelled. Staff who run the facility were told not to talk to us. We gained access to a staff meeting and physiotherapists said no-one had asked them about the affect on their patients. Patients who need this pool feel like we have been treated with contempt by the Hospital trustees.

 

I am sending this as an open letter, because local residents need to know what has happened at Northwick Park Hospital.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Linda in Preston Ward

Patient at Northwick Park Hospital

[Name and address supplied]

 

 

 

*For information:  From Brent council Website.

 

Scrutiny in Brent

Brent's scrutiny function has two scrutiny committees:

·       the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee

·       the Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee.

Each is composed of 11 elected members (nine from the Labour Group and one member from each opposition group which is consistent with current political balance arrangements). There are a total of 12 scrutiny meetings held during the municipal year, six per committee. This enables an integrated approach within each committee to scrutinise thematic and related policy and service issues. It also gives the opportunity for members to develop expertise across services and hold detailed discussions.

The Chair of the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee also participates in the North West London Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee as chair. It is composed of eight voting members from across North West London and one non-voting co-opted member. There are four North West London Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee meetings held during each municipal year.

 

Quality Care Commission welcomes improvements at Northwick Park maternity services - rating improved from 'Inadequate' to 'Requires Improvement'

 From the Quality Care Commission

In October, CQC carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of the maternity department at Northwick Park Hospital, run by London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust*. This was to follow up on concerns identified during a previous inspection in April, when CQC told the trust to take urgent action to keep mothers and babies safe.

Following the October inspection, the overall rating for maternity services improved from inadequate to requires improvement. Safe, responsive and well-led remain as requires improvement. Caring remains good, and effective moved up from requires improvement to good.

Nicola Wise, CQC’s head of hospital inspection, said:

“I am pleased to say we saw a number of improvements in the maternity department at Northwick Park Hospital during our recent inspection.

“After our previous inspection, we were concerned there was a blame culture within the service which stopped incidents being escalated and improvements being made. This had improved, and staff are encouraged to give feedback and report incidents which are now being reviewed and learning shared, with improvements being tracked. We found a zero-tolerance policy regarding bullying and inappropriate behaviour, which was an improvement from our last inspection.

“Women using the service told us staff treated them with kindness. One person who had recently given birth, said that staff had gone above and beyond to provide safe care and treatment. They also respected people’s personal, cultural, social and religious needs. One woman who wore a hijab said that staff had respected them and their privacy regarding this.

“Following this inspection, we pointed out areas where further improvements need to be made. However, the interim leadership team is aware of the issues, and is committed to making the required improvements. Staff told us that senior managers were much more visible, and they were impressed by the change in approach from the leadership team, saying there was no longer a feeling of ‘them and us’. It is clear that leaders need time to fully embed the improvements in the maternity service and make permanent appointments to the team.

“We will continue to monitor the service to check that improvements are made and fully embedded, however, we recognise that all hospitals and healthcare professionals are under extreme pressure at the current time, and they need to be given the space to focus on delivering safe care to patients and supporting staff through this difficult period.”

Inspectors found the following during this inspection:

• The service did not always have enough midwifery staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep women safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right care and treatment. Waiting times were longer for women across maternity services when staffing levels were low, though staff were encouraged to report delays as incidents. The birth centre was closed due to staff shortages. Staff shortages also impacted on home visits and clinics provided by community midwives
• Compliance with mandatory staff training was 84%, which did not quite meet the trust’s target of 85%, although it was an improvement
• The service had one never event in September. Never events are serious, largely preventable patient safety incidents. A swab was left inside a patient when they were being induced, even though two members of staff had signed a document showing that the correct number of swabs had been counted following the procedure. Learning from this event was shared across the trust
• The department’s policy was to admit women on their third call in 24 hours to explore any concerns. However, there was no system of recording the time at which women with concerns had previously called
• Some equipment on the resuscitation trolleys was out-of-date and cold cots** in the bereavement suite had been out of operation for two months, as the cooling system had failed, even though this had been reported to the trust
• Inspectors found an open trolley on the delivery suite which contained two drugs vials, presenting a risk that unauthorised people could have access to the vials
• One-to-one antenatal appointments with community midwives were not always being recorded. Inspectors also saw loose paperwork relating to patient assessments which could become detached from women’s notes so information could be misplaced
• Women who were attending the service to have their pregnancy terminated often had to wait for 45 minutes for their appointment in the same waiting room as women attending antenatal and postnatal clinics, which could be distressing for them
• Antenatal classes had been reduced as a result of the logistics of providing classes during the COVID-19 pandemic and staff availability, which meant women did not have access to information that could help them improve their health and wellbeing during pregnancy. Online classes had been planned, but these had not been implemented.

However:

• New interim leaders had the skills and abilities to run the service. The new managers understood and managed the priorities and issues the service faced. However, the trust needed time to embed this improved leadership and also to forge a period of stability by making permanent appointments to the leadership team
• In response to external reviews of the service, managers had produced a maternity improvement plan, which was reviewed and updated weekly
• There had been improvement in doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals working together as a team to benefit women
• Staff recognised and reported incidents and near misses. Managers investigated incidents and shared lessons learned with the whole team and the wider service. It was easy for people to give feedback and raise concerns about the care they received. The service treated concerns and complaints seriously, investigated them and shared lessons learned with all staff
• Work was in progress to ensure staff completed and updated risk assessments for each woman and took action to remove or minimise risks
• The service had recently employed an audit midwife and a risk midwife to ensure monitoring of patient outcomes and benchmarking of service
• Work was in progress to monitor domestic abuse being assessed at all antenatal appointments
• The service had information boards which carried updates for staff on the maternity risk register. Policies and clinical guidelines were up to date and had dates for review
• The service made sure staff were competent for their roles. Managers appraised staffs’ work performance and held supervision meetings with them to provide support and development
• Staff understood and respected the personal, cultural, social and religious needs of women and how they may relate to care needs. 
  

On Twitter Cllr Ketan Sheth, chair of Scrutiny where he has done much to hold local NHS services to account, said: 

 Pleased to see the Care Quality Commission have upgraded London NW University Healthcare NHS Trust's Northwick Park maternity service to Requires Improvement and rated the service as Good for caring & effective. This is welcome progress for our local maternity service.

The full report is available HERE

 

Northwick Park redevelopment takes another step forward at Monday's Cabinet

Property owners/leaseholders

The One Public Estate plan for Northwick Park will take a step forward at Cabinet on Monday February 12th when it is expected that a revised Memorandum of Understanding LINK between the partners will be approved and a timetable agreed.

The One Public Estate (OPE) is a government initiative aimed at rationalising and realising the potential (including financial) of public land by bringing together all the various public sector owners for redevelopment.  In the case of Northwick Park this includes Brent Council, Network Homes, the University of Westminster and the London NW Healthcare NHS Trust. LINK

Various options are considered in a feasibility study (embedded at the end of this article) and the favoured one is Option B2:

Click on image to enlarge

This includes the highest density of housing and reprovision of the existing university accommodation. On the issue of the proportion of affordable housing proposed the feasibility study notes '50% affordable [is at] the margins of viability, before any consideration of the value of existing uses'. The Option B1 included the provision of a new secondary school which may have provided a site for the proposed North Brent Secondary School LINK.

The plans are at an early stage but may include provision of much needed lift access at Northwick Park Metropolitan Line Station and work to improve the present narrow tunnel exit to the hospital and university, and improved pedestrian access to South Kenton station on the Bakerloo and Overground lines.  There is the possibility of a new road being built to take traffic into the area.

The Officers' report puts forward this timetable:

·      Prepare a planning brief for the site. (Feb 18- Dec 18) 


·      Commission further transport studies. (Feb 18- Dec 18) 


·      Maximise OPE funding. (ongoing) 


·      Commission energy feasibility studies. (Jan 18- July 18) 


·      Consider potential for inclusion of a secondary school. (Jan 18 – July 18) 


Network Homes Ltd and LNWUH to conclude negotiations on NHS owned 
land. (June 2018) Timescales are indicative. 

These are early days but local residents will want to look into the plans carefully for any impact on the Metropolitan Open Land that surrounds the site and which they have fought so hard to preserve in Harrow-on-the-Hill.