Brent's Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee will be asked by local campaigners to refer the proposal to close Central Middlesex A&E to the Secretary of State at this evening's meeting. Ealing Council has already taken this step which has drawn an irritated response from NW London NHS:
As as health campaigners are attending the Committee, housing campaigners will be at Mencap in Willesden High Road for a meeting starting at 6.30pm to discuss strategies for dealing with the deepening housing crisis in the borough. Details were published earlier on this blog and can be found HERE
Of course many residents think it is a 'shame' that we may lose out local A&E, especially when the alternative facility, Northwick Park, is already over-loaded. A local resident has written to Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt putting her views:Ealing Council has asked the Secretary of State for Health to consider the programme. This is a shame, as this process normally takes a few months and will d elay implementation of much needed improvements to local services which the majority of clinicians, local GP s and other local councils want to see go ahead.
Dear Cllr. Butt,I am a resident of Brent and Brent should be fighting on behalf of their residents to keep all four Hospitals A&E departments open. Urgent care centresare not acceptable they are not manned by many doctors or nurses, and are no alternative to an A&E unit. How far will Brent residents have to go to the nearest A&E dept? will they be seen? How long will they have to wait? This will put their lives at risk.St Marys Hospital Paddington, Northwick Park Middlesex A&E depts. are already full with the present numbers they deal with, how will closing four A&E's in North West London help the people of Brent?.I have had two operations this year in Charring Cross Hospital, this hospital is to be sold off for real estate. Charring Cross Hospital services the people of Brent, I was sent there as St Marys Paddington do not have the facilitiesor the beds to cope.The NHS was founded by the labour government in 1948, I expect a labour council to look after all its residents North and South of the borough and back Ealing borough council in fighting to keep all four A&E departments open. Emergency's, Maternity and the Ageingpopulation are all at riskYours sincerelyMargaret von Stoll
Apart from the important issues of the future of Accident and Emergency services in the area and the Shaping the Healthier Future proposals, the Committee will also discuss and question NHS officers on failures in local pathology services:
A serious incident was logged in December 2012 after a concern was raised by a GP about the new system. It became clear that this was not an isolated case, and another GP complained of spurious results, missing results and samples not processed. It was further identified that training for GPs had not taken place and that alleged meetings with GPs had not in reality occurred. A number of issues have now been identified with different test results and these are listed in the report.