NHS Consultation on patient transport services in NW London

Thursday 21^th January,  at 2pm to 4pm
Venue: Wembley Centre for Health & Care, 116 Chaplin Road, Wembley, HA0 4UZ

The NHS is reviewing patient transport across North West London. They are looking for the views of patients and carers to understand their experiences of using these services.

In January 2016 they would like to meet with people living in North West London that currently use or care for someone who uses patient transport services. They are holding workshops in Wembley and Hammersmith to share their initial findings and to hear your views on their proposed improvements.

More information is in the introductory letter and flyer – please circulate. If you are interested please contact by Tuesday 5^th January by email travel@nw.london.nhs.uk or phone 020 3350 4734.

Mansfield slams NW London hospital plans: Brent Patient Voice responds with proposals and asks 'Why is the NHS silent?'

 From Brent Patient Voice

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Brent Patient Voice welcomes the findings of the Mansfield Report. BPV Chair, Robin Sharp, said: “We are pleased that Mansfield endorses the extensive evidence that we and many other independent people submitted. Why has the NHS greeted it with silence?”  

The Report of the Independent Healthcare Commission for North West London under Michael Mansfield QC was published on 2^nd December. It brings no comfort for the NHS chiefs in our area – and none for patients either.

The Report says that the Shaping a Healthier Future programme is “deeply flawed”. Launching the Report Michael Mansfield said that the planned reforms provide “no realistic prospect of achieving good quality accessible healthcare for all and any further implementation is likely to exacerbate a deteriorating situation.”

The Commission calls for the programme to be halted, for the decisions to close the A&E Department at Central Middlesex Hospital and the Maternity Unit at Ealing Hospital to be reversed, for the increasing size of the population in NW London to be properly established and factored into future planning, for the so-called “Implementation Business Case” to be published and for there to be a new public consultation on the plans which they believe to have changed significantly. They suggest that the local authorities should consider seeking judicial review if the NHS press ahead with the programme in current circumstances.

However we are deeply disappointed that neither the eminence of Michael Mansfield nor the extent of public concern revealed by the evidence have moved the NHS authorities responsible for Shaping a Healthier Future to be sensibly open about the current state of the programme or its likely costs.

Commenting further, Robin Sharp said “Our fundamental criticism of the whole initiative is that the NHS in NW London has broken its promise in the consultation document that out of hospital services will be in place before changes are made to hospital-based services. Two A&Es and one Maternity unit have closed. Where are the openings to take their place?”

In order to be constructive we propose:

·      That the NHS should publish an intelligible version of the Implementation Business Plan for Shaping as it now stands, with outline costs, as is normal for any major public project;

·      That full consideration of the future of Central Middlesex Hospital be resumed, including the option of restoring its acute status with a fully-functioning A&E, bearing in mind the inadequacy of a stand-alone Urgent Care Centre there and the continuing intolerable situation at Northwick Park;

·      That Council officers be instructed to work with GLA statisticians to provide reliable estimates of the size of the current Brent population and growth rates, taking account of births, deaths, net migration and planned major developments;

·      That in collaboration with all partners Brent CGG produce a clear account of their Out of Hospital Strategy, including the role of the new GP networks, to restore confidence in this vital missing element of the Shaping programme;

·      That full and meaningful patient consultation and involvement should be integral to all future consideration of these proposals.

Brent Patient Voice  5^th December 2015

Visit the Brent Patient Voice website HERE

Bid to delay closure of Central Middlesex A&E

At the very last minute Cllr Mary Daly is to move a motion at Brent Full Council tonight calling for a delay in the closing of Central Middlesex A&E.

The unit is due to close on  Wednesday.A demonstration will take place outside the hospital at 10am on Wednesday to make community opposition to the closure.

There are fears that Northwick Park A&E is not yet ready to take patients who would have gone to Central Middlesex and is itself already over-crowded and suffering delays.

Action needed to save Central Middlesex A&E

It is sometimes thought that only the residents in the south of Brent and neighbouring areas of Ealing are concerned about the closure of Central Middlesex Hospital. However residents in the north of the borough, served by Northwick Park Hospital A&E are also affected as this Guest Blog shows:

I hear that Ealing Council's scrutiny panel has voted unanimously to refer a decision to downgrade A&E departments in north-west London to an independent panel and wonder what you think about the decision to close the A & E departments?

If Central Middlesex, Ealing, Charing Cross and Hammersmith A & E departments are to close what impact is this going to have on the whole of densely populated and hugely congested West London????

Ealing Council are campaigning hard against this decision and so far I can only see Navin Shah, London Assembly member for Brent and Harrow (see this LINK) campaigning against the closures I can’t understand why the local councillors and our MP Barry Gardiner* are not campaigning against the closures too?

Navin Shah's press release LINK said:

A&Es will be forced to cater for an extra 120,000 residents on average each. In 2010 there were 32 A&E departments in London, but only 24 would remain under these plans."

"The 32 A&E’s served a population of 8.17million Londoners, an average of 255,000 people each. Reducing to 24 A&Es will mean they have to cover 340,000 each, with London’s population due to rise to 9million by 2020. This will increase the number of people each A&E is due to cover to 375,000 residents - an increase of 120,000 for each A&E. This assumes that no further closures take place.

As you know in recent years every single bit of space in Wembley has had flats built on it, bringing more and more residents to Wembley and more and more traffic congestion.  Add to this the new designer outlet and French school coming to Wembley Park - these will both bring more people and more traffic to the area.

What about Wembley Stadium with 90,000 capacity plus staff and Wembley Arena with 12,500 capacity plus staff, these bring another 102,500 plus people to the area when both venues are holding events - should there be a major incident when both venues are full to capacity how would Northwick Park A & E cope???  How would emergency vehicles cope with getting people through Wembley to Northwick Park or through to the other remaining A & E departments???  When the stadium was opened traffic schemes were put in place to get people away from the stadium to the North Circular to try and stop the congestion in Wembley so would it not make sense to keep Central Middlesex A & E open???? 

Also we hear that Central Middlesex A & E will close this June well before the new larger A & E is supposed to open at Northwick Park – how can this be allowed to happen when it clearly says that the A & E departments will close in the next 2-3 years after the new larger A & E departments are open???

My friend recently broke his toe and went to Northwick Park A & E at 10.00pm on a Monday night and was told he would have to wait 5-6 hours before he was seen – he decided not to wait and went back the next day and had to wait 4 hours to be seen.  How will Northwick Park A & E cope when everyone has to go there?  Will the hospitals be reducing parking charges for people that have to wait for hours and hours in the A & E departments to be seen??? Will there be improved public transport - if you have to go there in the middle of the night there will be no public transport available.

What impact will all the extra traffic have on the area with people having to travel further for treatment - not very good for the environment!

*Barry Gardiner says Central Middlesex A & E is not in his constituency but a lot of the people who will be affected by its closure are his constituents!!!

 Since this guess posting was sent to me Cllr Lincoln Beswick  (Labour, Harlesden) has written in the Brent and Kilburn Times regarding the closure of Central Middlesex A&E and other Coalition policies::

All these areas that this affects must stand up, be more forceful, challenge nationally elected members and jointly have a march for freedom from this atrocious, blatant, obvious and odious decision. Those elected and in opposition should not stay silent on these issues.

This requires joint action by all those who are affected - elected politicians, health service, trade unionists, general community and media services

A first practical action will be if Brent Council decides to refer back the decision to close Central Middlesex A&E at the meeting of the Health Partnerships Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on Tuesday March 19th 7pm Brent Town Hall. LINK

The public can request to speak at the meeting. The contact is: 

Lisa Weaver, Democratic Services Officer  (020) 8937 1358 Email: lisa.weaver@brent.gov.uk

Have your say on Brent integrated health plans

Astonishingly, no risk assessment carried out on NW London NHS proposals

The NW London NHS proposals for far reaching changes in health provision have not been subject to a risk assessment despite them involving the closure of four Accident and Emergency facilities, including that at Central Middlesex Hospital, and the down-grading of several hospitals in the area.  The proposals affect 700,000 people.

The revelation was made at the August 2nd meeting of the NW London NHS Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee on which Cllr Sandra Kabir is Brent's representative. Risk registers are a standard method of assessing the risks on a High, Medium or Low traffic light system, establishing the nature of the risk and who is affected, and the strategies for reducing that risk.  Brent Council has such a scheme in its Corporate Risk Register LINK

Instead the authors of the Shaping a Healthier Future proposals proposed that the risk assessment would only be made AFTER the consultation and when the proposals have been approved. This means that councillors and the general public will have no way of assessing the severity of the risk posed to residents,  which clearly could  be a matter of life or death, during the consultation period. In effect they will be making a response without knowledge of the potential impact of the proposals on people's health and well-being.

The committee was clearly concerned and agreed to 'revisit' the issue at a later meeting.Cllr Lucy Ivimy (Conservative, Hammersmith and Fulham) wrote to a concerned member of the public who attended the meeting:

I agree with you about the lack of a risk register and as you say, for the NHS to produce one only after the decision has been taken is extraordinary. The committee will be looking further into various aspects of risk. I am personally concerned that the full impact of the proposed changes has not been made clear in this consultation process.

A further critical issue was the consultation document's claim that the proposed changes were based on 'tried or tested ways of delivering healthcare' that it claims already work in many parts of NW London and the rest of the county (p20). The two expert witnesses heard by the committee were less sure. Asked about whether the structure worked in other parts of Europe Professor Welbourn admitted, 'there is no evidence the  system will work'. Asked whether it would be possible to deliver the necessary community services involved in the changes, Dr Honeyman said, 'no one knows, no one has ever been here before'.

These revelations show that we are being sold a pig in a poke and it is imperative that the proposals are subject to robust scrutiny at the appropriate committees at the  NW London NHS and local council level. They confirm the need for a broad-based campaign against the changes..

Brent Council MUST do more to fight A&E closure

Ealing Council continues to put Brent in the shade as far as fighting for the health care of its local community goes. Brent Council has passed a resolution opposing the closure of Central Middlesex A&E and leader Muhammed Butt has agreed to speak at the march on September 15th but that's about it.

Ealing Council has been actively leading their local campaign and delivered leaflets and posters to every household i the brough. They are distributing 25,000 leaflets in the top 9 community languages and advertising on bus shelters and buses. A further household leaflet distribution will be made to advertise the planned March.

Hammersmith and Fulham Council has also been proactive as can be seen in the extract from their website below:

Join the 'Save Hammersmith' campaign

Hammersmith & Fulham Council is urging people to join it in campaigning to save Hammersmith hospital's A&E department.
The council says:

• Closing the A&E at Hammersmith could leave large numbers of residents dangerously far away from emergency care.
• No evidence has been provided that moving services to St Marys, in Paddington, would improve outcomes for residents.
• With thousands of news homes and jobs coming to the borough, we need more local capacity, not less.

Save our hospitals - public meeting

- Do you agree with the NHS plans to downgrade local hospitals?
- Are you worried about having to travel out of borough to receive urgent medical care?
- This is your chance to question NHS bosses and have your say!  
Hammersmith Town Hall
Tuesday, September 18
7:00pm

» Download a summary of the NHS hospitals proposals (pdf 109KB)
» Download a map of proposed NHS hospital closures (pdf 527KB)
» Message from Cllr Marcus Ginn, cabinet member for community care

Lend you voice to our campaign:

Take part in the NHS consultation - closes October 8, 2012
Have your say

Read your stories

Sign our petitions:

Sign our petition

Share your stories

Like us on Facebook

Volunteer to collect signatures:

Contact us for a campaign pack by emailing us at savehammersmith@lbhf.gov.uk.

Download petitions:

» Download a Save Hammersmith hospital poster (pdf 16KB)
» Download a postcard to send to your doctor (pdf 54KB)
» Download a printable petition to pass to your neighbours  (pdf 81KB)

Send us your stories:

We want the NHS to understand what their plans mean to our lives by publishing your stories. Have our hospitals saved yur life or helped a loved-one? Email us your story and a picture: savehammersmith@lbhf.gov.uk.

Read and comment:

» Waiting times to soar under 'half baked' A&E closure plan
» Charing Cross health services to ‘fit in a gym’
» Expert to dissect NHS hospital downgrade plan
» Closing stroke centre 'will put lives at risk'
» No show for botched NHS road show
» Doctors 'sceptical' on A&E closures
» H&F residents speak out on hospital cuts
» Battle to save local hospital services begins
» Save Charing Cross hospital
» Councillors quiz health bosses over accident and emergency closure plans
» Mass A&E closure threat across west London
» Charing Cross downgrade a reality - vascular surgery moves to St Mary's
» Warning over brain surgery plans - brain surgeons move to St Mary's
» Support Charing Cross - major trauma centre - Charing Cross loses out to St Mary's

This is a chance for Brent Council to try and recover some of its credibility by showing that it is capable of standing up and mounting a strong campaign in partnership with the local community.  The e-petition urging it to do just that is HERE

 The petition reads:

We, the undersigned, petition Brent Council to do all in its power to prevent the closure of the Accident and Emergency Department at Central Middlesex Hospital. This will include making the case against the closure and seeking support for this position on all appropriate bodies on which the council is represented.

SUPPORTING INFORMATION

> North West London NHS is consulting on proposals in 'Shaping A Healthier Future' which would mean that Central Middlesex Hospital's Accident and Emergency Department, already closed overnight, will close for good. This is likely to be the first step in the complete down-grading of the hospital and its potential closure in the long term.

> The hospital serves some of the most deprived wards of South Brent which have poor transport links with Northwick Park Hospital, the likely alternative A & E.

> The area is the location of major roads including the North Circular and the Harrow Road; railway lines including the Euston-Birmingham main line, Overground, Bakerloo, Chiltern, Metropolitan and Jubilee lines, a major industrial area in Park Royal; as well as waste management and other potentially pollution causing processing plants in the Neasden area. The area also includes the major venues at Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena.

> All of the above are potential locations for major incidents necessitating ready access to an Accident and Emergency facility.

> Ealing Council has already committed itself to actively fighting the proposals and Brent Council should do the same.

CAMPAIGN TO DEFEND BRENT'S HEALTH SERVICES

The Campaign to Defend Brent's Health Services was set up originally to bring together health service workers, patients and trade unionists in opposition to the massive cuts in Brent's community health services made by the Primary Care Trust in response to their 2007 financial crisis. Now the NW London Hospitals Trust have announced that they need to make "saving", i.e. cuts, of £32 million. Although they say that they hope to make these savings without compulsory redundancies, they admit that up to 400 jobs will be lost, and campaigners are convinced that such job losses are bound to impact on patient care and lead to greater stress for the workers who keep their jobs. People's health deteriorates in times of economic recession like the one we face now, so we need more and better health services, not cutbacks.

Supporters of the Campaign gathered outside Central Middlesex Hospital on Valentine's Day, Saturday 14th February, to declare "We love our NHS". This was one of many protests across London and the country as a whole called by Keep Our NHS Public declaring support for the ideals of the NHS and opposition to cuts and privatisation. The campaign will be organising more events and activities as the effects of the cutbacks become clearer.

If you are interested in joining the Campaign to Defend Brent's Health Services, you can email Sarah Cox, the coordinator, on roundwood@redmail.com or ring 07951 084 101