A&E closure will affect schools' capacity to deal with child illness and accidents

The UCC can deal with broken arms but not broken legs

My submission to the Shaping A Healthier Future had a particular focus on the impact of the Central Middlesex A&E closure on children and schools, as well as the role schools could play in preventative medicine.

This is an extract:
   
PROCESS

1. Dr Mark Spencer, leading on the Shaping a Healthier Future consultation, told a TV news programme before the consultation had begun that A&Es would close. This suggests that the consultation is a sham as decisions had been prior to the public having a say.
2. Despite claiming that ‘nothing had been decided’ the continuation of Central Middlesex A&E was not included as an option in the proposals. The statement is thus untrue and misleads the public.
3. No risk assessment was carried out on the proposals prior to the consultation so the public have had insufficient evidence on which to base their responses.
4. Throughout the consultation meetings it has been claimed that the proposals are not ‘cuts’. However flat funding at a time of population increase and increased demand does amount to a cut in real terms even before we take into account the financial plight of the Trust and the subsequent need to make ‘savings’. This again amounts to misleading the public.
5. Headteachers and school governing bodies, responsible for the health, safety and well-being of children in their care, were not consulted about Sustaining a Healthier Future.. Key stakeholders have thus had no say about the impact of the closures on a particularly vulnerable section of the community.

CENTRAL MIDDLESEX A&E

1. The department has been run down over several years, including overnight closure, pre-empting the closure proposals.
2. The department serves two of the most deprived wards in the capital (Stonebridge and Harlesden) with low life expectancy and high incidence of illness including a specialism in sickle cell anaemia affecting the African Caribbean population.
3. Car ownership at only 22% is low and public transport links poor making the journey to Northwick Park A&E difficult with potential dangers to patients of long and delayed journeys in emergencies.
4. The area has a significant number of sites where major incidents could occur which necessitate an easily accessible fully functioning A&E in the vicinity:
1. Railway lines including Euston-Birmingham mainline, Chiltern line, London Overground, Bakerloo, Jubilee, Metropolitan and in the future possibly HS2
2. The North Circular Road, Harrow Road, Edgware Road.
3. The industrial area around Wembley Stadium and Neasden, and the Park Royal Industrial estate (one of the largest in Europe)
4. Major venues including Wembley Stadium, Wembley Arena and Fountain Studios
5. The area has a rapidly growing child population so has increasing demand for A&E services associated with  childhood illnesses such as meningitis, asthma, allergic reactions and the increasing incidence of TB; as well as the usual head injuries and fractures associated with childhood accidents.
6. Many recent immigrants in the area are not registered with GPs which leads to increased use of A&E by their parents for childhood illnesses.
7. The assumption is that Urgent Care Centres and A&Es are complementary provision, operating on the same site. This will not be the case if Central Middlesex A&E is closed and instead cases that cannot be treated by the UGC will have to be transferred to Northwick Park A&E. This will necessitate an additional journey by ambulance, private transport, cab or public transport increasing the risk to the patient.
8. Concerns about first aiders in schools and work places having to make decisions about whether to send patients to the UGC or Northwick Park A&E were not answered convincingly during the consultation. We were told that they would soon get to know which was appropriate or could ring a new telephone service for advice. I remain concerned that this could put patients in danger and puts far too much responsibility on the first aiders concerned.
9. School first-aiders and support staff taking children to Northwick Park A&E act in locus parentis until parents get to the hospital. The distance and transport issues mean that parents will take longer to get to Northwick Park hospital with resultant distress for children, and school staff will have to stay at the hospital for longer periods.
10. Similar arguments can be made for other A&E facilities threatened with closure in the NW London NHS area.

URGENT CARE CENTRE

1. The demarcation lines between UCCs and A&E are unclear and without an A&E at Central Middlesex could cause dangerous delays to treatment.
2. The UGC is privatised and therefore less accountable to the local community and susceptible to market pressures.
3. The Central Middlesex UCC, run by Care UK.  having lost 6,000 x-rays does not have the confidence of the local community.

SCHOOLS

1. Schools and Children’s Centres have not been included in the section about care outside hospitals and preventative care in these settings could be of vital importance.
2. As mentioned above newly arrived families are often not registered with GPs and schools could play a role in campaigns over registration, immunisation and be a site for health checks on new arrivals.
3. The health service could also deliver support to groups of  parents in school on health, sexual health and other related issues in an environment in which they already feel at ease.
4. As well as health screening for new arrivals dental, eyesight, allergy and weight checks for all pupils could be reintroduced as a form of preventative care.

 

Don't let the ConDems make a casualty of our NHS

Hospital campaigners from Brent, Hammersmith and Fulham and Ealing converged on the NW London NHS headquarters in central London today to hand in petitions containing thousands of names opposing the closure of A&Es across West London. Some campaigners wore bandages to dramatise the threat to local people.

The consultation on Shaping a Healthier Future ends at midnight tonight. www.healthiernorthwestlondon.nhs.uk  for the online consultation form  or e-mail to consultation@nw.london.nhs.uk

Brent to join with other boroughs to out-source 'Public Realm' including waste and parks maintenance

In a report to go before the Executive on October 15th LINK officers are recommending that the Council join with Barnet, Hounslow and Richmond in a 'super contract' see my previous blog HERE that will cover:

• Household waste collections and recycling
• Street Cleansing operations
• Graffiti clearance
• Winter maintenance
• Cleansing of public conveniences
• Grounds maintenance to parks and open spaces (including Brent Housing Partnership HP estates)
• Grounds maintenance to cemeteries and grave digging
• Highway verges and shrub beds
• Playground inspection and maintenance
• Warden service
• Commercial waste

Brent's contract with Veolia ends on March 31st 2014. The contract, across the 4 boroughs and BHP which may not all buy into all the services, would be worth £700m over the 16 year contract period..

In a controversial move the report recommends:

The Executive to give approval to an exemption from Contract Standing Order 88 to allow an advert to be placed and a pre-qualification process to be run without the approval of evaluation criteria and certain other pre-tender considerations, subject to approval of such matters at a future Executive

And further recommends, as a consequence of the problem of the lack of a Brent Council depot when the last contract was awarded to Veolia, that the Council acquire a depot. Andy Donald Director of Regeneration and Major Projects, appears to be leading on this:

That the Executive agree to an amendment of £6.2m to the Council’s capital budget for 2012/13 to procure a new depot as set out in section 3.6 of the report. If a suitable site is identified, due to the reasons set out in paragraph 3.6.6, that the final terms of any acquisition including the purchase price be delegated to the Director of Regeneration and Major Projects and the Director of Finance and Corporate Services in consultation with their respective Lead Members. Such purchase price to be contained within the amendment to the Council’s capital budget as set out within this report

As a lay person it seems to me that this is not a particularly transparent or accountable  process when the Executive is not fully involved in an exceptionally large contract.

The proposal has come as a surprise to people in Barnet where a large number of staff are involved. In Brent waste management and recycling are already out-sourced to Veolia and it is the Parks and Sports staff who are most affected. The report states:

For Brent, whilst the majority of staffing implications are for staff currently employed by the current contractor, there are implications for existing Brent staff in Sports and Parks and Highway Operations. The proposal is that in excess of 50 council staff providing grounds maintenance and a number of staff in other services are transferred to the successful provider. In addition, if the decision is to create a single client arrangement a small number of staff in waste and recycling would be affected,

TUPE will apply and presumably this will also be the case for the cleaning and grounds maintenance contractors currently employed by Brent Housing Partnership, which also comes under Andy Donald's umbrella.

Boris Johnson ditches driverless trains plans according to reports today

It has been reported that Boris Johnson has withdrawn his plans for driverless underground trains which were due to be tested on the Jubilee Line.  See previous  blog from the RMT HERE

REPORT HERE

Come and present hospital petitions at 1pm today as consultation closes

 Brent hospital campaigners have collected more than 2,000 signatures on petitions opposing hospital closures in West London and the privatisation of the NHS.

They will join campaigners from Ealing and Hammersmith today at 1pm to present the petitions to the North West London NHS Trust at their offices at 15 Marylebone Road, NW1 (close to Regents Park).

Please join them if you can. Brent campaigners will meet at Baket Street Station at 12.45pm.

View Larger MapDriving Directions

The consultation on Shaping  Healthier Future closes  today at midnight.  The consultation document gives the NHS NW London address as Victoria Street SW1. In fact they have moved to Marylebone Road so I checked today that redirected postal responses would still be valid if they were received at Marylebone Road after today's deadline,. They confirmed that this would be the case.

E-mail responses should go to:  consultation@new.london.nhs.uk or online at www.healthiernorthwestlondon.nhs.uk  Many people have found the latter format restrictive as it does not allow them to support the continuation of Central Middlesex A&E.

Brent, Hammersmith and Ealing march together to save hospitals

Refusing to be divided from one another with localist claims of one hospital against another, campaigners from Brent, Ealing and Hammersmith and Fulham marched to gather on Saturday calling for ALL the hospital A&E departments in the area to be saved, thus preventing the eventual running down of the main hospitals.

Speakers included the Leader of Ealing Council and a Conservative councillor from Hammersmith. Muhammed Butt, leader of Brent Council, joined the march briefly before going off  another official engagement.

However it was the speeches from hospital workers, patients, trade unionists (including Christine Blower, General Secretary of the NUT) and a mother of 5 children which really galvanised the crowd.  Pete Firmin, secretary of Brent Trade Union Council, was applauded when he emphasised the need for unity and outlined how the closures were an attack on the most vulnerable in Stonebridge and Harlesden.

The following comments from the public on the Hammersmith and Fulham Council website about Charing Cross A&E  echo many that have been made about Central Middlesex A&E:

Closing this A&E would mean over-burdening others in West London - the people of Hammersmith need this facility. NHS efficiency drives are to do with saving money, not with saving lives.
Jane Thurston-Hoskins
 
Has anyone tried getting to the Chelsea and Westminster hospital in a hurry, especially during a Chelsea football match?!!
S Jenner
 
What are planners thinking of!! Have they ever been to C&W Hospital from almost any direction and any time. Fulham Road is permanently gridlocked even for busses and there is no near by underground.I suppose it is a convenient way of having a quiet A&E. And where do patient go when they have to be admitted. ?To ChX. And why was ChX's A&E department been given an overhaul only recently. I do speak out of experience with both hospitals. ChX is by far the more caring hospital And what if there is an accident on the A4 The so called planners are an absolute disgrace. I could go on!!
Dina Harris
 
Keep Charing Cross Hospital with a full range of departments. I am disabled; it is my nearest hospital and the most accessible one. I have been well looked after in dealing with my cataracts, hammer toes and mastectomy. I remember it being built, serving a great need.
Patricia Owen
 
Absolutely agree. Charing Cross is a fantastic hospital with very high standard of care, at the forefront of medical technology and life saving equipment. My son was saved there at 3.5 years old after falling under a car. I have just had a laparoscopy on my gall bladder. I cannot believe what a high standard it is. It is clean, friendly and has super nursing and consultant staff.
Ewa Sylwestrowicz

London teachers call protest over GCSE debacle and new exam proposals

London teacher associations have orgabised the following demonstration and meeting on the latest of Gove's wheezes:

Wednesday 24th October at 6:00pm in Central Hall, Westminster

Tell Gove: Justice for GCSE students: No to the EBC

Meeting and protest called by London NUT associations

Speakers include:
Chris Dunne (Headteacher, Langdon Park School, Tower Hamlets)
Jane Basset (Head of English)
Professor Sally Tomlinson (Goldsmiths University)
Kevin Courtney (National Union of Teachers Deputy General Secretary)

Come to protest  at the DfE before the meeting. Bring banners
From 5pm n Department for Education, Sanctuary Buildings,
Great Smith St, Westminster (only 2 mins from the meeting venue)

The perils facing separated young asylum seekers

This report  by Nicky Road of a recent conference has been forwarded by the Institute for Race Relations and should be of interest to teachers, social workers, lawyers and refugee groups in Brent.

The  conference, organised by the Royal Holloway and the Tavistock and Portman NHS on 19 September, brought together lawyers, teachers, mental health workers, social workers, refugee organisations and young asylum seekers to share their knowledge and experiences and to establish a network to collate information and track the outcomes for separated young people seeking asylum.

The excellent contributors detailed both the legal minefield of seeking justice for these young people and the emotional and psychological impact of displacement and a very uncertain and potentially life-threatening future. Young people from Afghanistan also participated in the day and spoke about their experiences of living in the UK, gaining education and qualifications, making friends and a life here only to be met with a very uncertain future as they reach 18.

There were speakers, films taken by young people speaking about their lives, a performance of Mazloom, a play based on words and experiences of young asylum seekers, and a film called Hamedullah. This is the true story of Hamedullah who fled Afghanistan as a teenager and lived safely in Canterbury until Border Agency officials came to his house in the middle of the night, arrested him and removed him to Kabul on a charter flight. Sue Clayton, a film director working in the Media Department at the Royal Holloway, filmed the day he was led to his flight and gave him a tiny video camera which he has since used to capture his experience of returning and his daily struggle to survive. This film is a very powerful testament to the dangers that these young people face when they are forcibly removed and gives the lie to the official statement that it is safe for these young men to return.

The greatest sense of injustice voiced by those young people present was the inequality in the way they are treated in the UK. The different standards of the legal representation they receive was also voiced by many, lawyers included. Supporters of these young people have started to show extracts of Hamedullah to judges, highlighting what they can expect on their return, and this is proving an increasingly effective way of influencing the decisions taken by courts.

The film Hamedullah costs £10 with all the proceeds going to this young man to support him whilst he tries to make a new life for himself. He has been unable to get work, has no family left and his village is in one of the most dangerous areas. He is viewed with great suspicion as belonging to neither country.