436 children under five admitted to Northwick Park and Barnet Hospitals with breathing difficulties according to latest (2023) figures

 From Mums for Lungs

A Freedom of Information request sent to London Northwest University Healthcare Trust and the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust reveals the scale of respiratory problems amongst the youngest children in Brent and Barnet. 

In 2023, the latest figures available, 436 children under five were dmitted to hospital with respiratory difficulties. Across 22  London hospitals surveyed, more than 15,000 children were admitted with serious breathing difficulties. 

 

 Baby grows Brent: credit Jonathan Goldberg. 

L-R: Amandine Alexandre, Sally Toure, Tony Burch, Frances Holloway, Gourav Gourav, Ilaria Esposito, Agnieszka Szewera in Roundwood Park near Northwick Park Hospital. Pic credit: Jonathan Goldberg / Mums for Lungs.

 

The figures, obtained by air pollution campaigners, Mums for Lungs, have prompted calls to speed up the removal of all diesel vehicles by at least 2030, with some limited exceptions. 

Parents have been hanging baby grows that spell out ‘Clean Air Now’ near areas affected by high levels of pollution, all in breach of World Health Organization standards.

Across England as a whole, 15,328 children aged 19 or under were admitted into hospital for serious asthma attacks alone, according to Public Health England figures from 2022/23. For London, the figure is 2,705.

 

Amandine Alexandre, a parent who lives in Brent and trustee of Harlesden Neighbourhood Forum said,

 

Although air quality in Brent has improved since 2016, Harlesden High Street is bucking this trend. Thanks to our Breathe London monitoring station, we know that, most days, nitrogen dioxide levels still far exceed the air quality standards set by the World Health Organization in 2021. This is very worrying considering that NO2 irritates our lungs and weakens our immune system. Harlesden residents deserve cleaner air now.”

 

Harlesden Neighbourhood Forum, a charity responsible for implementing the local neighbourhood plan, was successful in bidding for a Breathe London community node in 2021. The solar powered pollution monitoring station was installed by Imperial College London in March 2022. (It was taken down by Brent council by mistake in the autumn of 2022 and was re-installed on March 30th 2023.) The data can be accessed live on Breathe London. It can also be easily visualised on Air Aware. 

 

The Breathe London Network was established in 2021 as a partnership between the Mayor of London, Imperial College London, and Bloomberg Philanthropies. It is making reliable air quality monitoring data more accessible to local communities by building a network of accurate and reliable air quality sensors across the capital.

 

Air pollution monitors in Brent and Barnet continue to show high levels of some of the most dangerous forms of pollution - including nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM 2.5). 

Due to the small size of many of the particles some of these toxins may enter the bloodstream and be transported around the body, lodging in the heart, brain and other organs. Exposure to PM 2.5 can result in serious impacts to health, especially in vulnerable groups of people such as the young and elderly. 

Short-term exposure to concentrations of NO2 can cause inflammation of the airways and increase susceptibility to respiratory infections and to allergens. NO2 can exacerbate the symptoms of those already suffering from lung or heart conditions.

Monitors in Brent  show levels of air pollution  in some cases close to the legal limits (23 - 33 μg/m3 NO2) and well for  PM2.5 above WHO guidelines for 2024 so far as well. 

 

Brent – Ark Franklin

Brent – IKEA

Brent – John Keble Primary School

Brent – Neasden Lane

 

NB. UK legal annual limit values:

NO2 = 40μg/m3, PM2.5 = 20μg/m3.  

WHO guidelines:

NO2 = 10μg/m3, PM2.5 = 5μg/m3

 Editor's note: The new North Brent Secondary School is due to open in Neasden Lane

 

Dr Anna Moore, a respiratory doctor who works in a London NHS Hospital, added: 

All the evidence shows that there is a clear connection between high levels of air pollution and respiratory conditions. These figures also demonstrate that there are hundreds of children who are in hospital with conditions that could be prevented. At a time when NHS resources are stretched thin, we need to urgently clean up our air, including completely phasing out the most heavily polluting diesel cars, trucks and vans and focus on infrastructure which enables safe walking and cycling as this is vital for long term health.

Jemima Hartshorn, Mums for Lungs, said:

Thousands of children are unable to breathe because of preventable air pollution, this must change. So many children are being admitted to hospitals with serious cases of asthma, and all the evidence shows that damaging lungs at an early age can cause lifelong health conditions. The next national Government, Mayors and local authorities must all use their powers to phase out diesel vehicles and protect children from painful and debilitating health conditions.

Road transport is the largest contributor to air pollution in London and it’s thought that air pollution contributes to around 4,000 early deaths each year in London. 

Mums for Lungs have written to the main political party leaders Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer calling for them to discourage people from buying diesel vehicles and to set a target for England to be diesel-free by 2030, with limited exemptions, alongside action on wood burning and creating more School Streets, which restrict car use at drop off and pick up. 

 

 

New replacement 'Super GP Surgery' to open in Wembley Park providing space for 16 GPs from March 2024

 

Quintain yesterday announced a new GP ‘super surgery’ to open at the heart of Wembley Park. When operational, it will be the largest NHS GP practice in the borough of Brent, serving up to 25,000 patients.

Quintain said:

The 11,000 sq. ft space will be operated by Wembley Park Medical Centre, relocating from Wembley Park Drive to Humphry Repton Lane close to Olympic Way and Boxpark Wembley, a 10-minute walk from their old premises.

The build will create state-of-the-art general practice medical spaces including two clinical suites, 14 consult exam rooms, four treatment rooms, and an e-consult room. It has been designed with a double height reception and waiting area into the ground floor of the Repton Gardens residential development at the heart of Wembley Park.

The announcement of the NHS super surgery is a significant milestone in the delivery of the Wembley Park neighbourhood, which has been planned from the start to provide all the community facilities everyone needs within easy reach. 

The surgery will be delivered by Quintain as part of the Repton Gardens development, designed by architects The Manser Practice, a team with award-winning experience in the healthcare sector. The surgery will provide enough space for 16 GPs and is set to open to the public from March 2024.

SOS NHS DEMONSTRATION – END THE CRISIS – SUPPORT THE STRIKES Saturday 11 March – 12 noon – Central London, NW1 3AA

 

 

From SOS NHS

We do not need to remind you about the unprecedented crisis in the NHS, but we do need to ensure our voice is heard. We also stand by NHS staff forced to take strike action and seek to expose the political choices this Government is making to underfund and privatise the NHS.

This is also a moment ahead of the Spring Budget to bring people together around an issue that unites us all. 

 

The demonstration will assemble at 12pm Midday, on Saturday 11 March, at the northernmost end of Tottenham Court Road (Euston end) opposite Warren Street Underground Station NW1 3AA and then march to Whitehall for a closing rally with speeches outside Downing Street.

 

 

ACCESIBLITY INFORMATION-SHORT MARCH

 

We’re doing all we can to make sure our event is accesible to all.

We will have short march which will assembly outside the north side of the National Portrait Gallery, 5 Irving St, Leicester Square, London WC2H 7AT
The short march will end in Whitehall at the main stage where we will have cordoned off area for wheelchair users and BSL users. 

 

The short march will assemble at the National Portrait Gallery (just opposite from the Garrick Theatre) from 13:00 and we expect the main march to arrive at some time between 13:30 and 13:45.

 

Further information https://sosnhs.org/events/

STRIKES: Solidarity actions and locations this week - from information provided by Brent TUC

From Brent Trades Council

 

LOCATIONS

TOMORROW

 

 

Are the Tory Government making the same mistakes about Monkeypox as their predecessors made about AIDs?

 

Brent Liberal Democrat councillors and the Liberal Democrat Diversity Officer have written to Dr Melanie Smith (Brent Director of Public Health)  and Cllr Neal Nerva expressing concern over the prevalence of Monkeypox in the borough and suggesting joint action to push the Government into action.. 

Diversity Officer.  Edan Powel, said:

The Government’s seeming inaction shows a lack of care towards the most at-risk communities. To me and the Brent Liberal Democrats, it is sadly unsurprising that the Government are not taking Monkeypox as seriously, given that it is currently mainly affecting men who have sex with men. Parallels can be drawn to the way previous Conservative Governments responded to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, a period of time that still haunts our community. We need urgent action now to prevent mass contagion.

The letter to Cllr Nerva and Dr Smith said:

We are writing to you with huge concerns about rising Monkeypox cases in Brent and across London. According to data released by the UK Health Security Agency on the 9th August 2022, our Borough is in the top 10 in London with the highest number of confirmed cases. This is alarming.

The World Health Organisation has already declared this a public health emergency of international concern. Therefore, we believe the Council must put pressure on the Government and the Department of Health and Social Care to make smallpox vaccines, approved for use against Monkeypox, available to eligible groups, especially in areas where the virus is currently increasing the most.

To date, impacted groups have very limited places to go to get the vaccine. A small Monkeypox walk-in vaccine clinic was open briefly at Guys’ Hospital, which was overflowing with people willing to get themselves and those around them protected. The Government’s seeming inaction shows a lack of care towards the most at-risk communities, and the DHSC’s disregard towards the NHS Constitution principles of bridging the health inequality gap.

As we know, Monkeypox can affect all; however, it is very important to recognise that it is currently disproportionately affecting men who have sex with men. It is not unsurprising therefore that the Conservative Government is not taking this seriously, given their party’s track record of discriminatory policies during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.

People’s health and lives are not a game. We must collectively call for urgent action to protect the health of all. COVID has been a real wakeup call and even though many have recovered from the COVID virus, some still live with the damage that the virus has done to their bodies. We should not wait to find out what the long-term impact of mass contagion of Monkeypox could be. There is an opportunity to contain the spread of Monkeypox – let’s work together to push the Government to act now.

Kind regards,

Cllr Anton Georgiou, Leader of the Brent Liberal Democrata , Cllr Paul Lorber, Deputy Leader , Cllr Hannah Matin, Liberal Democrat Councillor for Alperton, and  Edan Powell, Brent Liberal Democrat Diversity Officer

I undesrtand that no response has been received as yet but will publish when available.

Information about Monkeypox from Guys and St Thomas' Hospital on this  LINK

Beware fake Covid-19 Text messages. The NHS never ask for bank details.

I received a text message this afternoon from a number ending in 505 6489 infrming me that I had been exposed to someone with Covid-19 and telling me I was required to take immediate action. A link to health-care-uk.com was given to order a PCR test.

When I tried to forward the text message to my email it was blocked as having a potentially harmful attachment.  Already suspicious of the mobile numbler and the fact that it was not an NHS website I went separately to the website that looks genuine but eventually asks for name, address, mobile and then bank details for 99p postage on the otherwise free PCR test.

Clearly this exploits people who may panic at the news of exposure.

The BBC has published a warning from the NHS:

The NHS is warning about widespread scam text messages telling recipients they have been in close contact with a Covid case.

"We've seen reports of fake NHS text messages about ordering Omicron Covid-19 test kits," it tweeted.

Close contacts of people who have tested positive are no longer advised to test.

The aim of the messages appears to be harvesting financial and personal information.

⚠️ We've seen reports of fake NHS text messages about ordering Omicron COVID-19 test kits.

We never ask for bank details, so please be aware of suspicious messages.

Find out more about scam emails, texts and phone calls ⬇️https://t.co/DV13iNJ6GK

— NHS (@NHSuk) June 21, 2022

Contribute to the consultation on Brent's Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy - a vital tool in tackling the borough's health inequalities

Brent Health and Wellbeing Board will discuss updated reports on winter planning as services cope with the pandemic and the usual winter increases in cases LINK and the much longer term Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy LINK which is the result of learning lessons from the pandemic and entering the third stage of consultation.

The Strategy consultation ends on January 31st 2022 and the final document will go to the Board on March 16th 2022 for agreement.

Residents and organisations can complete the consultation HERE.

The Strategy seeks to address the following health inequality issues in a joined up way: (Click on images to enlarge)

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

 

Why you should oppose the Health & Care Bill - Keep Our NHS Public

 

https://www.facebook.com/events/339224764333387/

 Statement from Keep Our NHS Public

The Health and Care Bill will be launched this week, as Prime Minister Johnson overrules his new Health Secretary and Covid cases soar. KONP calls for widespread public opposition to the Bill, and for MPs and Lords to vote against it at every opportunity. The Bill will break the national NHS into 42 separate “Integrated Care Systems” (ICS), each with its own tight budget forcing cuts in care. Local NHS provision will be tied to a plan written by the ICS Board, open to the private sector, dragging local authorities into a financial project without real democratic accountability or public control.

The Bill will be promoted as an end to privatisation. It is the opposite, a transition to an unregulated market in healthcare. The Government is responsible for delaying lockdowns in March 2020 and before Christmas, untested discharges to spread infection into care homes, key workers dying without adequate PPE, failure to stop the Delta variant when it first appeared, exhausted and demoralised healthcare staff and150,000 deaths.

Despite this appalling list of errors, it claims the Bill is based on its record of pandemic management and points the way forward for the NHS as a whole. In practice this will mean unbridled collaboration with the private sector, openly celebrated by Matt Hancock before his fall, and certain to be endorsed by former banker and Chancellor, now Health Secretary Sajid Javid, and by the Prime Minister’s NHS advisors including the former CEO of Operose, the UK branch of US health insurance giant Centene, Samantha Jones. Already, some 200 firms, at least 30 of them US-owned and prominent in the health insurance market, are accredited to support the development and ongoing management of ICSs. They include Operose (which now controls dozens of GP surgeries and community services), Optum (owned by the largest US health insurance firm UnitedHealth), IBM, and Palantir.

As money drains from healthcare to shareholders, what will it mean for patients, and for NHS staff whose wellbeing is essential if they are to provide effective care?

For patients:

●more companies given access to confidential patient information, with no clear protection for patient privacy

●more digital services, creating a two-tier health service, depending on whether you’re able to make use of computers or smart phones

●fewer face-to face appointments with GPs, and less chance of seeing the same health worker

●more patient care given by less qualified (cheaper) staff, directed by computers and manuals

●growing expectation that patients will ‘self-care’, using phone apps or websites for advice or information

●more risk that services will be cut or rationed, and non-urgent referrals to hospital delayed or refused because of pressure on ICSs to make savings

●faster discharge from hospital, with family carers expected to take on more unpaid care due to lack of community services

For staff

●threat to national agreements on pay, terms and conditions as each ICS Board will have their own limited budget and seek to cut costs ●flexible working, with staff redeployed across and even beyond the ICS area, undermining team working, union organisation, continuity of care, and bad for the environment with increased travel

●deregulation, as nursing and other jobs are advertised to candidates without the right qualifications

●deregulation, as the Secretary of State will have the power to remove jobs from regulation -supposedly justified by new technology but actually risking harm to patients and interfering with professional judgement and staff development.

For democratic accountability and Local Authorities

● the Secretary of State for Health will assume decision making power to impose local service reconfigurations

● the right and power of scrutiny by local authorities of significant health changes will be weakened or abolished

● the right of access by the public to board meetings and papers may also be threatened

For legal protections

●exempting the NHS from the Public Contract Regulations 2015 will remove the right to reject bids on the grounds of non-compliance with environmental, social, or labour laws (ILO conventions guaranteeing Freedom of Association and the Right to Strike), and on the basis of a bidder’s track record.

During the pandemic, the government dished out over 3000 covid contracts, many of them without tendering, some to companies whose only qualification was being mates with a Minister.

That is the Brave New World the government plans for the NHS as a whole. The threats to staff should ring alarm bells for every trade union with members in the NHS, and the threats to patients should concern us all. Let’s stop this Bill now.

Brent Patient Voice call on NWLondonCCG to ask NHSDigital to pause 'concerning' GP data sharing process

 

The Tories have worked out how to pull off an NHS data grab: do it during a pandemic by Marina Hyde (The Guardian)

Brent Patient Voice has written to the Brent Representative on the Governing Board of the North West London Clinical Commissioning Group calling for a pause in the current process that would see the NHS accessing GP’s confidential individual patient data. This is the letter:

 

There is great concern among patient groups about NHS Digital’s new scheme for taking confidential patient data from GP records, with patients having only until 23 June to notify any wish to opt out and the vast majority having no inkling that this is the case. We understand that concerns on these lines were voiced at yesterday’s NWL Info Governance meeting, when members heard that doctors in NE London were refusing to co-operate with NHS Digital in view of the lack of information so far shared with patients about the effects of GPDPR and their options. There also seem to be practical issues for already overloaded GPs who are supposed to process confusing opt-out applications to be made on paper within a time window of 7 days between the closing date for patients to apply and the start date for extracting data of 1 July.

 

In our view 99% of patients would be unable to comprehend the information about this scheme and the opt outs currently displayed on the NHS Digital website. The interaction of a Type-1 opt-out with a National Data opt-out is obscure and, despite the alleged three years during which this scheme has been prepared in secret, does not appear to have been thought through. It leaves many questions in the air, including the relevance of any opt outs from personal data sharing which patients have made previously under the “Extraction” scheme or care.data. Nor is it clear how the paperwork is to be signed if it can be sent electronically. The ‘explanation’ looks as if it has been written by a committee, not all of whose members agree with each other.

 

What it does say is that personal data is to be “pseudonymised” which means that the person to whom it relates can be re-identified. This is inherently risky and no good reason is given for it. If the data is wanted for planning there can be no need to re-identify individuals. Furthermore we are told that the data collected and passed to NHS Digital will not be used “solely for commercial purposes”, which means that it can be used partly for commercial purposes.

 

We cannot see how such a distinction can be monitored. In any case this rushed secretive exercise risks not just the hugely trusted confidential GP/patient relationship, free to all, that is the jewel in the crown of the NHS and its success as a valued healthcare system, but it undermines trust in any properly legitimated data collection. Surely it is madness to put this at risk by arranging for the mass irretrievable transfer of sensitive personal data out of the control of GPs to commercial interests, particularly without the direct consent of the patient?

 

Can we therefore please ask you, the CCG, its PCCC and Brent GPs to send an urgent message to NHS Digital, NHSE and local MPs demanding a significant pause in the current process:

   a. to allow for a complete rethink on the scope and design of the scheme, noting that there is a fundamental difference between census-type data which is anonymised for 100 years and continually updated data relating to individuals;

b.   to require NHS Digital to prepare a proper information campaign about the benefits and safeguards involved, which can then be the subject of Parliamentary and public debate;

c.    to clarify and simplify the opt-out process;

d.   to give GPs the necessary support for informing all their patients directly and for handling the administration aspects of the process?

 

EDITOR'S ADDITION The current form to send to your GP to opt out of sharing your data can be found HERE

Protest: North West London - Don't renew Centene's contract - Protest May 27th 1pm

 

From We Own IT

Centene’s contract to run Canberra Old Oak surgery in North West London is expiring on 25 July, 2021.

Local decision makers are meeting tomorrow, Thursday 27 May. They’ll be making a final decision about the contract at this meeting.

Please join our protest at the offices of North West London CCG:

• Date: Thursday, 27 May
• Time: 1 pm
• Venue: 15 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5JD 
  
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Sign up for the protest on Facebook if you're on Facebook.

You can bring any homemade signs you have. But if you don't have one, don't worry. We will provide you with signs at the protest.

We know that their meeting will be held online, but we need to show them that the public really cares about this.

Hundreds of people joined protests across London on the 22nd of April to make their voices heard. We know local health leaders are feeling the pressure.

If you have not yet done so, please take 2 minutes to send this email to local health decision makers.