Writing to Havering Councillors today about my concerns about why the 2017 review into the closure of King George may be a sham & critcal care beds campaign
Dear Councillors
To introduce myself to new Councillors I am part of the team campaigning to save King George A&E. The next stage of the campaign is to call for more life saving critical care beds for both King George and Queens Hospitals. Midday on Thursday 12th July at 10 Downing Street has been booked in deliver a letter on the issue, it would be great to have Havering Councillor representation on the day.
As part of the campaign we organised a 2014 cross borough and cross party visit to 10 Downing Street which included two Havering Councillors per the link here Photos from 10 Downing St visit today & next task in campaign
A key aim of the campaign in 2014 was to get a review into whether population growth made the 2011 decision to close KGH A&E invalid.
After years of campaigning with the vital support of Havering Council and North East London MPs we secured a review last year which put the closure of King George A&E on hold per the link here http://www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk/news/health/watershed-moment-as-review-announced-into-stupid-king-george-hospital-a-e-closure-plan-1-5300929
However, I write today to share my concerns about why the closure plan is still seems to be going ahead and why I seek your support for a campaign to extend critical care bed provision at both Queens and King George Hospital.
The link here Planning meeting to campaign for more Critical Care Beds for King George & Queens midday 8th June Ilford Town Hall
explains the detail of why we need more critical care beds. Should you be able to attend the planning meeting this Friday it would be great. I declare a personal interest in the matter as in December 2017 I was admitted to a critical care bed at King George following a stroke. No one can know if my recovery has been so rapid and my stay in hospital so short was due to the excellent and prompt care at King George critical care unit. However, the evidence is that critical care units do substantially improve mortality rates. Had my stroke had occurred on the wrong day in February 2018 a critical care bed may not have been available at either Queens or King George due to them all being full up. BHRUT have promised to supply an answer to a question I tabled yesterday at the BHRUT board meeting seeking BHRUT support for more critical care beds at both King George and Queens.
The decline in performance at BHRUT last winter has been called "staggering" by Cllr Zammett, the Redbridge Health Scrutiny Chair with relation to the ambulances queuing at BHRUT.
The link with the graph showing the decline is at http://moderngov.redbridge.gov.uk/documents/s113804/SUPPLEMENTARY%20Item%205_Revised%20BHRUT%20presentation.pdf
Ambulance black breaches hit 178 in February 2018 as against 0 in 2017. Councillors of all parties called for two extra wards to be opened by BHRUT in order to cope.
My reasons for believing that the decision to close King George A&E is still on track and which will adversely impact on Queens include the following:
1) The 2016 BHRUT clinical strategy which includes closing King George A&E is still up on the BHRUT site here file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Clinical-Services-Strategy.pdf lists at page 7 the aim of closing King George A&E. This begs the question of why is it still there if a new strategy is meant to be delivered in the near future?
2) The BHRUT board used to alternate their board meetings between King George and Queens to show their commitment to King George.However, the current BHRUT meeting schedule has only 3 out of 10 board meetings to take place at King George. This appears to be the board distancing themselves from King George continuing as an acute hospital taking emergency admissions. Such a distancing cannot be a good recruiting tool for encouraging A&E staff to come to King George, nor can it encourage Queens A&E staff to stay for fear of unsustainable workload coming their way..
I have been chasing the board to make a statement on why the board has decided to distance themselves from King George for weeks. Joe Fielder, the BHRUT Chair give me a commitment at the board meeting yesterday that I would get an explanation for the change by close of business this Friday.
3) The 2017 review into whether King George A&E requires to stay open appears to have stalled. I can find no mention of how this review is progressing in either BHRUT board papers or any of the North East London Clinical Commissioning Group papers. More than six months on from the announcement of the review , no date has been provided as to when this review will be published, without such a date it seems difficult to believe that a review is even taking place. I have attended the majority of BHRUT board and Redbridge CCG meetings and cannot recall any mention of the review. I have copied in BHRUT for any comments they might wish to make.
If BHRUT cannot provide a date for when the review will be published, or a date by when the review publication date will be published in the near future it suggests the review may a sham and the process of closing acute beds at King George will continue. This seems bound to adversely impact upon Queens.. Councillors have been pushing NHS managers about the future of King George (a) but I cannot find any real progress on this.
4) The inexplicable 15th March 2018 decision by Redbridge council to pass a local plan which included an infrastructure report implying King George would be replaced by polyclinics (1) and a decision to take "surplus" land out of the King George site for housing estate.Both key components of the 2011 decision making case (2)
5) When attending the BHRUT board meeting yesterday I got the impression that Matthew Hopkins gave the impression that the plan to close King George A&E was still the way forward and to challenge the plan was "futile". For longer than I can remember I have called for these important board meetings to be recorded to allow fair reporting of what is said. Joe Fielder declined my request yesterday to allow recording of the meeting claiming it led to too much "pressure" on board members. NHS England record their meetings and has not impeded their work. A am sure Matthew will comment if he disagrees with my comments.
Finally, while the campaign to save King George is split over Redbridge Council's decision to allow housing on the King George site. I hope a way can be found for everyone can come together on the need for more critical care beds at King George & Queens.
Regards
Andy Walker
120 Blythswood Road
Ilford IG3 8SG 07956 263088
A Redbridge Health Scrutiny Committee meeting on 31.1.18
"Further to the Committee’s request at the last meeting, the report provided a further update on the development of the East London Health and Care Partnership (ELHCP) and its Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP), including an update on the latest position regarding the A&E department at King George Hospital (KGH).
ELHCP’s Director of Communications and Engagement, Ian Tompkins, explained that ELHCP were actively engaging with local authority partner organisations as part of their pan east London engagement work focussing on estates, devolution and collaborative work to support workforce developments to promote the area as a great place to live and work and offer careers in east London in a joined up way.
An internet portal was being developed to share information on work opportunities in Health and Social Care, particularly for keyworkers, primary care and nurses. In addition, ELHCP was liaising with the South Bank University and Health Education England to find out what would help to attract young people into health and social care roles across east London. Shortages in primary care had enabled the creation of new roles, such as Physician Associates and Pharmacy Associates, and shadowing arrangements. The recruitment and retention of Social Care staff was also a challenge and ELHCP was working with the voluntary sector to transform and improve services.
In response to queries from Members, it was confirmed that a Maternity transformation programme was underway and a report on this was scheduled for the Outer North East London Joint Health Scrutiny Committee meeting on 13 February 2018. In respect of a more co-ordinated approach to improve workforce challenges, whilst there was a pan-London nursing scheme, prioritised by the Mayor of London, a local focus was on attracting health and social care staff to work in east London.
Developments were ongoing to improve access, such as digital sharing of records and the Super 111 Service for east London, which would be run by the London Ambulance Service. In response to a request from the Committee, Ian Tompkins agreed to send further information on this, together with information on the Community Commissioning Alliance.
In discussing the future of A&E at King George Hospital, the Committee agreed a request for cross-party elected Member representation on an advisory board to provide input into the decision-making process. Ian Tompkins explained that governance arrangements were in the process of being developed and priority areas for engagement were around maternity and urgent care. However, he undertook to take this suggestion to the Partnership Board and respond to the Committee in due course."
(1) Redbridge Infrastructure report of 2017 passed on 15th March 2018, Redbridge could have updated the plan to reflect the "review* into the future of King George but decided not to.
The link is here https://www.redbridge.gov.uk/media/3500/lbr-221-infrastructure-delivery-plan-march-2017.pdf
The key passage starts at page 29 - the emphasis at is mine:
8.4 Current health facilities/ properties in Redbridge include: King Georges Hospital (acute) Goodmayes Hospital (mental health) Hainault Health Centre Loxford Polyclinic 46 general practices 47 dental practices 58 pharmacies
15 optometrists 13 NHS PS properties 41 NELFT properties
8.5 Since April 2013 the property ownership of the former Primary Care Trust has fragmented several ways and the ownership of NHS Estate has been split between two Department of Health controlled companies: Community Health Partnerships (CHP) hold all the new LIFT/PPP buildings NHS Property Services (NHS PS) hold all the leased and PCT owned estate.
8.6 The current NHS estate is in a variable condition. It is not always in the right location to deliver local services to the population and it is often not fully utilised. Commissioners and providers need to make better use of the existing estate, where major issues include: Void or underutilised space. Inappropriate tenants – for example, core clinical space is often filled with administration and support services. These services could be relocated, in most cases more cheaply and the space could be used to accommodate integrated clinical services. Lack of joint working across organisations where new buildings are commissioned close to existing estate, which could have been utilised, potentially negating the need for the new facility.
8.7 There has been significant investment in the last decade with 13 new ‘polyclinic’ health centres, Queen’s Hospital PFI and Barking Community Hospital all newly built. These centres will be at the centre of future care delivery. ENDs
15 optometrists 13 NHS PS properties 41 NELFT properties
8.5 Since April 2013 the property ownership of the former Primary Care Trust has fragmented several ways and the ownership of NHS Estate has been split between two Department of Health controlled companies: Community Health Partnerships (CHP) hold all the new LIFT/PPP buildings NHS Property Services (NHS PS) hold all the leased and PCT owned estate.
8.6 The current NHS estate is in a variable condition. It is not always in the right location to deliver local services to the population and it is often not fully utilised. Commissioners and providers need to make better use of the existing estate, where major issues include: Void or underutilised space. Inappropriate tenants – for example, core clinical space is often filled with administration and support services. These services could be relocated, in most cases more cheaply and the space could be used to accommodate integrated clinical services. Lack of joint working across organisations where new buildings are commissioned close to existing estate, which could have been utilised, potentially negating the need for the new facility.
8.7 There has been significant investment in the last decade with 13 new ‘polyclinic’ health centres, Queen’s Hospital PFI and Barking Community Hospital all newly built. These centres will be at the centre of future care delivery. ENDs
The Redbridge Council map showing a outline of a map showing housing estate to built on "surplus" King George land passed on 15th March 2018 is here at page 23
(2) The replacement of acute emergency admission beds at King George by polyclinics is listed in the 2010 case for King George A&E closure which was passed by Andrew Lansley MP, then Secretary of State for Health, in 2011 at page 73 at the link below.
The quote is:
Continued improvements in out of hospital care provision – increased, better coordinated community provision can prevent admissions, reduce lengths of stay at hospitals and reduce readmissions. Commissioners are working together to consider how improvements in this area can support the effectiveness of the Health for north east London proposals. For example, the Harold Wood polyclinic has recently opened in addition to three existing centres at Oliver’s Health for north east London decision making business case 73 Road, Loxford and Barkantine. More new provision is in the pipeline, including developments at Barking hospital, the St George’s polyclinic in Havering and a potential health centre in Dagenham East.
Housing being part of the plan to close King George is stated at page 113:
"The delivery of the savings forecast will require a rationalisation of the King George Hospital site to make sure that the space vacated by the acute unit is either used productively for an alternative use, or decommissioned such that the running costs are saved. An estate rationalisation plan would need to be developed bringing together: The parts of the King George Hospital site and buildings that can be decommissioned and mothballed. The parts of the King George Hospital site and buildings that can be decommissioned cleared and sold. Rationalisation between King George Hospital and mental health facilities on the Goodmayes site."
The BHRUT meeting schedule follows
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