Dawn Butler MP for Brent Central took the unusual step of addressing last night's Council meeting on the threat to cut the overnight hours of the Urgent Care Centre at Central Middlesex Hospital. A 24 hour UGC had been promised to compensate for the closure of Central Mid's Accident and Emergency service. She spoke about the distances that would have to be travelled by people needing urgent treatment at night time and the dangers involved.
Cllr Ketan Sheth, chair of Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny, spoke about his Committee's attempt to hold Brent and Barnet Clinical Commissioning Groups to account over their proposals to close the Cricklewood Walk-In Centre and other councillors referred to the Pembridge Hospice closing its doors to new admissions and the financial difficulties of the St Luke's Hospice.
Cllr Nerva said that he was a keen supporter of the NHS but could not stand by while the service was whittled away in front of our eyes. It was unacceptable that people had to wait for more than a year for an operation or that access to a consultant was being reduced. He said other areas were not being affected to the same extent and called for an explanation of how the NW London NHS Trust had got into this predicament.
The motion proposed by Cllr Mary Daly (Sudbury) was passed unanimously:
Our Community. Our Health Care
This Council notes:
· The Government has presided over the
longest funding squeeze in the NHS’ history; deepened by cuts to Public Health
Services and Adult Social Care.
· There are currently over 100,000
staff vacancies in NHS England, including 41,000 nurses and nearly 10,000
doctors. This figure could easily rise to 350,000 by 2030 according to research
conducted by The King’s Fund, the Health Foundation and the Nuffield Trust.
· There are similarly 17,000 fewer
hospital beds now than in 2010.
· The impact of Conservative cuts to
public services and rising poverty are evident in the new Long Term Plan, with
NHS England calculating that socioeconomic inequality causes £4.8 billion a
year in greater numbers of hospitalisations.
· Nine years of austerity, cuts and
privatisation have resulted in nearly 2.8 million people waiting over 4 hours
in A&E last year, over 540,000 patients waiting over 18 weeks for treatment
and NHS waiting lists growing to over 4.3 million.
· The underlying deficit of nearly
half of the NHS trusts which provide secondary care to patients referred by a
GP is close to £5 billion.
This Council further notes, the
consequences of these swingeing cuts:
· North West London Clinical
Commissioning Groups (CCGs) face a significant deficit in the forthcoming year,
with a projected deficit of £112m. The clinical commissioning group for Brent
represents £9m of this debt.
· While North West London’s population
has grown by 5%, funding is stagnant, and worsened by unplanned emergency care
rising by 25%.
· In 2018, London North West
Healthcare Trust received a second Requires Improvement report from the CQC.
· Proposals to merge eight CCGs in
North West London into one CCG by April 2021 will lead to yet more re-organisation,
change and ultimately disruption to residents.
· Public Health funding for Brent
services such as smoking cessation and alcohol recovery
treatment have again been cut by the Government, by £0.5m for the next
year.
· Age UK states there is a “perfect
storm” in the Adult Social Care sector with parts facing “total collapse”; with
£8 billion needed to stabilise the system and tackle increasing complex care.
The latest promised Government green paper on the sector has been delayed at
least six times over the last 18 months.
· According to the Royal College of
Psychiatrists, Mental Health Trusts have less money in real terms to spend on
mental health now than in 2012 and the number of mental health nurses has
fallen by 4,000.
· IFS analysis indicates that if we
leave the EU, the public purse is likely to lose enough money each year to fund
the whole of NHS England for 3 months.
This Council believes:
· The NHS belongs to the people; it is
Labour’s proudest achievement, designed for universal healthcare for all on the
basis of need, free at the point of use - the NHS should always have the
resource to provide a comprehensive system, where everyone counts.
· The NHS should work across
organisational and geographical boundaries, to facilitate services for every
resident.
· The Government has passed the buck
with cuts to public services delegated to our local NHS, resulting in a
hollowing out of services in Brent and the surrounding area.
· Residents and members of the
Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny committee are concerned about the stymieing of
access to GP services across the borough and upon its boundaries: with
Cricklewood GP Centre under consultation to cease its walk-in provision; and
Central Middlesex Urgent Care Centre consulting to curtail its hours of
operation; and Pembridge Hospice in Ladbroke Grove closing its doors to new
admissions.
· The reduction of services from
Central Middlesex UCC will impact on our poorest residents, without access to
their own vehicles, with alternative services involving lengthy journeys by public
transport at night, upwards of an hour.
· These changes will be felt far and
wide across the health economy, as more residents seek support through accident
and emergency or via their general practitioner.
· The sustained reduction in the
ability of the NHS to provide essential services affects everyone, young to old
and certainly those most vulnerable.
The Council resolves:
To work with Brent’s Members of Parliament, to voice our opposition to
any future arrangements in which alterations to local NHS services threaten the
safety of patients or residents alike, and re- affirm the need for health
services to put people at the heart of any future plans.
