Tag Archives: whittington hospital

Whittington and North Mid petitions – huge response!

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I sent out an email to my email list to inform local people (hard copy will follow more widely) of the threat to close or reduce services at the Whittington A & E and about the threat to the North Middlesex A & E too. Both contain petitions for people to sign up to: The Whittington petition is here and the North Mid petition is at http://bit.ly/northmid.

The responses are pouring in. In the first 24 hours, since yesterday afternoon, 745 people have already signed the Whittington petition and 89 the North Mid.

It is already quite clear that local people don’t want to lose their local A & E nor see it reduced. That is why it is so important that local peoples’ views are heard loud and clear NOW. Otherwise when the Health Authority ‘options’ finally come to public consultation – we may find that there are no options that keep the Whittington A & E open and that in reality the decisions have actually been made. That goes for the North Mid too.

I support improved clinical outcomes, obviously, and there are lots of health services that may be better provided by one or other hospital. But A & E is one of the services that needs to be local and 24 hours – that’s the point.

As one constituent wrote to me who works at one of the hospitals (not the Whittington) ‘there is no more logic to an   A & E unit at University College Hospital than the others.  Medical staff will adapt to what is decided.  UCH and RFH could easily become even more specialist than they already are and would flourish without an A & E.  The Whittington on the contrary exists to provide a local and emergency service and is at risk of having its lifeblood sucked away’.

Couldn’t have put it better myself!

The Whittington is not safe in their hands

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I was shocked by the leaked letter (see my earlier post) that showed the Whittington would lose it’s A & E department under all four options being put forward for the reorganisation of health services in what is called London North Central (LNC) Sector of the Strategic Health Authority (Islington, Camden, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey).

I had not been reassured by the hasty press release by LNC saying that the first letter had been confusing and re-issuing a version which changed the Whittington’s fate to being designated a ‘local hospital’ in the options rather than mentioning A& E at all.

‘Local Hospital’ if you look up its meaning on the Department of Health website means that A& E would be reduced to effectively ‘urgent care’ for between 8 and 16 hours per day with no emergency surgery on site. Given the level of need locally – the idea of people having to travel to the Royal Free which has appalling public transport access – does not seem to be designed with local people in mind at all.

Moreover, Haringey which doesn’t actually have a hospital, relies on both the Whittington and The North Middlesex for A & E – and the North Middlesex’ A & E is also under threat in one of the current four options.
Anyway – today I had urgent meetings with both LNC (Stephen Conroy) and the Chief Exec of the Whittington (Rob Larkman) – separately. In terms of LNC – Mr Conroy was very keen to emphasise that nothing was final, that options were still being discussed and drawn up, that no decisions had been taken – and that the options (whatever they ended up as) would go to the Review Panel in December and pre-consultation in January. To avoid the elections – the public consultation on the options would be in September 2010. So if the letter hadn’t been leaked – local people would not have had any say before the election.

The proposals are all around what should be provided where and which of UCH, The Royal Free, Barnet, North Midds, The Whittington and Chase Farm would become ‘major acute’ hospitals and which local.
When I pushed for assurance that the 24 hour A & E service at the Whittington would not be terminated – Mr Conroy could not and would not give that assurance.

I also asked him what autonomy and status the Whittington Board had in all of this. From his answer it is quite clear that whilst the Whittington Board’s opinions are important, they are considered ‘organisationally loyal’ and when looking at the bigger picture of service needs in the ‘sector’ it would be the LCN who would take the decisions.

We also pushed (I was accompanied by Cllr Nigel Scott, LibDem local health spokesperson and Ed Butcher, my Head of Office) for openness and transparency about the processes. We are concerned that by the time there is a wide public consultation (as I said – after the election) – the basic decisions will have been made. That first letter stating that the Whittington would have no A & E even though withdrawn – has left its mark – and I can’t help thinking that where there’s smoke….

It has also been pointed out to me that the Whittington sits on top value land – and that letting the hospital wither on the vine of ever reducing services might at some point enable land sales to a cash-strapped Strategic Health Authority – I hope not!

At the subsequent meeting at the Whittington Hospital, Rob Larkman (CEO) said that they had been shocked too by the letter stating that A & E would not be provided in any of the options and that it was his challenge on that letter that had forced LCN to put out the second letter.

In fact I think the Whittington Board may, to an extent, be an ally of local people in the fight to retain A & E and maternity and obstetrics. The Chair of the Board was also in attendance at this meeting and he said that the Board also fought for what the local community wanted and needed.

So to me, the crucial issues are not the labels that LNC may wish to give their new configurations of major acute, acute, local and so on – the key is still keeping important services like 24 hour A & E and maternity and obstetrics local at the Whittington – whatever the configuration.

I made it quite clear that I would, apart from keeping in close contact with what is happening, make sure that local people are kept informed about what is going on and about what I regard as a real threat to both the 24 hour A & E and the continued provision of maternity and obstetrics at the Whittington – and that I would be campaigning along with my Liberal Democrat colleagues in Haringey and Islington for what local people want and need.

Whittington A & E under threat

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I will literally fight them tooth and nail if they try and close or even reduce our emergency A & E services at the Whittington – which they (NHS London and the Government) clearly wish to do.

If you read the four options on the first letter sent out by Rachel Tyndall, CEO for North London Central NHS which was sent to all relevant  hospital CEOs and Medical Directors but not dated, you can see how stark and clear the message is about the future of A & E at the Whittington:

From the letter:

This provided 4 possible models for North Central London, namely:

 a)      Barnet and North Middlesex designated Major Acutes, Royal Free designated a major acute with specialist services, UCLH designated a specialist provider, Whittington designated a local hospital but with no emergency take and Chase Farm congruent with the BEH clinical strategy

 b)      Barnet and North Middlesex designated Major Acutes, UCLH designated a major acute with specialist services, Royal Free designated a specialist provider, Whittington designated a local hospital but with no emergency take and Chase Farm congruent with the BEH clinical strategy

 c)       designated a Major Acute, UCLH and Royal Free designated major acutes with specialist services, North  designated a local hospital with an A&E and medical take, Whittington designated a local hospital but with no emergency take and Chase Farm congruent with the BEH clinical strategy

 d)      North Middlesex designated a Major Acute, UCLH and Royal Free designated major acutes with specialist services, Barnet designated a local hospital with an A&E and medical take, Whittington designated a local hospital but with no emergency take and Chase Farm congruent with the BEH clinical strategy

As you can see – all four options kill off A & E at the Whittington. The position put out by Rachel Tyndall in her letter was crystal clear – that the Whittington would loose its A&E, and therefore its ITU, and acute medical and surgical services.

This position now, rather abruptly, appears to have changed with a hasty and strange press statement put out on 13th November to the effect that the letter had “led to some confusion”. No it hadn’t – it was perfectly clear – no emergency service at the Whittington. 

So – whilst they try and back-peddle to offset any mounting campaign to save our vital A & E at the Whittington – let me just make quite clear that I do not trust the Trust. They want to close our A &E. They don’t appear to understand that the 240 people a day who attend A & E are in great need and moreover could not make it to the Royal Free where the proposed services would have gone. The transport and access to the Royal Free for local people here in the West of Haringey is too dreadful for words. Moreover – local people want, need, deserve and have paid for an A & E here at the Whittington.

When will this dreadful Government and these dreadful, NHS beaurocrats, who seem only to rearrange and restructure, begin to understand what people want and need from their local health services.

Merging some services between the Whittington and the Royal Free is one thing – denying local people a local, 24 hour A & E and the services to go with it is another.

The consultation NHS North London claim to have done was a sham – a couple of weeks in August basically – hardly exhaustive given the dramatic nature of the proposed changes.

They may draw in their claws for now – but the letter makes quite clear where NHS and the Government want to go with their plans. No amount of weasel words will be able to deny their direction of travel.

The battle lines are drawn!

Local MP demands urgent meeting with hospital boss after worrying news of merger

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Following the recent news of a potential merger between the Whittington and the Royal Free Hospital Trusts, Lynne Featherstone MP has today demanded an urgent meeting with the Whittington Chief Executive to ensure local residents’ concerns are taken on board.

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“I have today demanded an urgent meeting with the Whittington Chief Executive, to make sure local residents’ needs and concerns are at the heart of any debate about merging these two hospitals.

“Many local residents already have to travel long distances to get to their nearest hospital and I want to make it clear to the hospital bosses, that a further deterioration in service is unacceptable.”

Liberal Democrat Councillor David Winskill, Member of the Haringey’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee, adds:

“For some time now, there has been a lot of concern about what the Darzi plans for London’s health services will actually mean.”

“Although there are some very good aspects, it seems that the full implications for our network of general hospitals have just not been thought through. This is a matter I will be pursuing through Scrutiny.”

Just a few things………..

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Broke my toe on Thursday morning rushing out door to get to engagement (but did nothing about it except hobble and moan)so hobbled to British Association of Social Workers conference where they had invited me onto a panel to talk about my experiences during Baby P. What was lovely was the amount of social workers who came up to me and thanked me for what I said. I was really pleased – for during the whole Baby Peter tragedy I was very careful to refer to the need for proper support for social workers – and to point to what happened in the Victoria Climbie case. In that case the only person to take the blame was the social worker on the end of the food chain. It was the Labour leadership and chief officers and managers who all got away completely from any consequences – actually it was that that motivated me to speak out when Baby Peter died. I wasn’t going to see another tragedy blamed on the social workers.

But I think it was also what I was saying about the need for an open and transparent culture, about the job being about trusting social workers to use their instincts and critical faculties rather than ticking boxes – and outside of case load reduction – perhaps the main drum I bang is the way that the pendulum has swung far too far towards management holding sway regardless of professional and clinical opinion.

I hobble on to the Spectator Annual Awards where strangely Harriet Harman and Peter Mandelson won the main awards. Was it an ironic parting gift to those who would not be in power by the next time the awards come around?

After that, I gave up and came home and put ice packs on my foot and laid down for the evening. I managed to do my advice surgery this morning at Hornsey Library – but then decided I couldn’t go on. I had to reschedule my Big Lottery Tour this afternoon  (as I really can’t walk) so went to the Whittington and then came home. Hoping for tea and sympathy from my children…………………….

This week's other bits…………

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Liberal Democrat Opposition Day Debates:
The Liberal Democrat opposition day debates were both ones that Labour should have supported. Labour failed to do so on both votes.

The first was on Equitable Life – and I am sure that every MP in the House has had heartbreaking letters from people who have lost their life savings through Equitable Life and are fed up waiting for the always promised, never delivered compensation.

The second motion was asking Parliament to sign up to the 10:10 campaign. Lots of individual MPs (including me) and councils have already signed up to reduce their carbon emissions by 10% by the end of the year 2010. The motion was asking the House itself to sign up, all Government departments and Public Sector Bodies. Given the Labour Government (and the Minister) were so fulsome in their praise for the 10:10 campaign – I am still at a loss as to why they failed to support the motion. They refused to sign us up to the 10:10 campaign. Shame on them. Blimey – even the Tories supported this one.

Women’s Questions
I asked the Minister what the Government was doing about removing the barriers to employing women that had been highlighted in the Equality and Human Rights Commission statement that women’s maternity rights etc were putting employers off. The Minister said she didn’t accept that was the case!

Book on Baby Peter
Met with an author/film maker who is doing the background research on a potential book about Baby Peter. Having received literally thousands of emails during the height of the Baby Peter coverage from people all over the country – including many professionals from relevant fields – who all had such knowledge and contribution, I am very pleased that someone serious is going to do a serious book on this. Whilst Panorama and other documentaries have all tried very hard – it really is not possible to address the complexities of this subject in entertainment format – so am very happy to help.

Meeting with Peter Lewis, Director Children’s Services, Haringey
Following neatly on, had organised a meeting with Peter Lewis to touch base on progress in terms of child protection in Haringey. When I first met Peter after he was appointed following the furore over child protection in Haringey – he told me that it would take him three years to turn Haringey’s Children’s Services around. The first inspection of how he and the department were doing decided things were improving but not fast enough. I hadn’t seen him for about six months – and I thought that some of the measures that Peter has brought in subsequent to that inspection to provide rigour in supervising (human rigour not tick box rigour) sounded like they would be effective. I also thought that his action to address the issue of recruiting social workers to Haringey (much needed – as unfilled posts and many agency workers currently) by bringing in social workers from the States and recruiting from big equivalent cities like New York showed initiative.

On education I brought Peter up to date with the Liberal Democrat campaign for Fair Funding (as our children get £1000 less per head than kids in Hackney or Islington) because we pay inner London staff salaries (high) and only receive outer London per pupil funding (low). Given that Haringey schools showed up recently as having a very high level of deficits in their budgets (one of the worst in the country) not surprisingly given that £1000 differential – the pressure has to be kept up to make the Government give us our fair share.

Meeting with new CEO at Whittington Hospital
First meeting with the new CEO of Whittington, Rob Larkman. This was a basically get to know you type meeting, setting out from my point of view the various key interests I have on behalf of local people. It was also about the funding problems coming down the track at our health services, the impact of the new Community Health Centre at the Hornsey Hospital site and in terms of the Whittington itself – my priority – which is making sure that patients are treated well – not just clinically – but as people.

The aspect which people raise with me about their hospital stays – when there are complaints – is always about how they were treated in human terms by the staff. Obviously – the vast majority of the staff are absolutely fabulous – and there are more people praising the Whittington and their treatment than are critical. But – those who do get badly handled – need their local hospital to take such issues really seriously. I have found that the Whittington has been very responsive in the past to any individual complaints I have taken to them – and now I want the new CEO to take over the last CEO’s promise to me – that patient treatment would be a priority.

I look forward to a good and constructive working relationship.

My unexpected hospital visit

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Blogging has been sparse the last few days due to unforeseen circumstances – basically fell over on Wednesday morning.

I wish it was exciting – but as my daughter kindly said – it was really just ‘old lady’ stuff. I don’t really know what happened – but road contacted face! Contrary to the view that people take no notice – three women came to help me (thank you!).

One pointed out that my face was bleeding. Once I established that it was just a scrape down centre of nose – I then realised that my hand was not right. So time for a bit of secret shopper at A & E at the Whittington. Some time later – x-rayed, put in splint and told to return for more x-rays next week – I went home to sleep.

Joyce Vincent film being made

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Catching up on a couple of things from earlier in the week – to Wapping on Thursday to be interviewed for a film. No – sadly not becoming a movie start! Carol Morley, a film-maker, interviewed me about the tragic death of Joyce Vincent who was found dead in her flat in Sky City (above Wood Green shopping city) and who had been dead for about two years. There were half-wrapped Christmas presents on the floor, the TV was on and the window was open with a billowing curtain.

We all said ‘how tragic’, how could it happen, where were the neighbours, where was her family, what about utilities, what about Housing Association rent arrears and so on and so on. She had been at one time a victim of domestic violence – but that was past. In the end there was no foul play – but the haunting nature of the case made me pursue various strands for some months – long after the media circus had left town.

Well – Carol came to interview me then – and now she has found the funding and is making a movie about Joyce. She has found out more than the journalists, more than the police, more than anyone – and I’m not going to say here what she found – but it will make a riveting film and it will be a tribute to this woman who we all felt so bad about and about whom virtually nothing was known.

Then it was to the Whittington Hospital for a flu jab. I always have the jab (am asthmatic) but usually at my doctor’s surgery – but to publicise the need for people who are older, have diabetes or asthma – want to raise the profile. No doubt very special treatment as the Head of Nursing gives me the jab. Thanks Camilla!

Then visited the newly doubled in size and refurbished wards for extremely premature babies. They were so tiny – it’s unbelievable how the babies survive. It’s not just the equipment – but also the completely dedicated and committed team of nurses and consultants who work round the clock to protect and nurture these tiny lives.

Haringey's health services

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Surgery, then met new Head at Hornsey Girl’s School (what a great new head!), then had my usual meeting with David Sloman (CEO of Whittington Hospital – who assures me that my endless banging of the drum on how patients are treated in terms of care and compassion is now top of the list) and then on to Haringey’s new Sixth Form Centre to present a prize to one of the Haringey Heroes. This is an awards event for young people across Haringey who have showed exceptional talent, or caring, or leadership in their lives. For example – one was a carer’s award for children who have (on top of everything) to care for parents with disabilities. It is one of Haringey’s better efforts – and I was very happy to be there.

Thinking further about local health services – and watching Lord Darzi talk about the NHS plan – I am struck by the contrast between what he says – which is that polyclinics are about providing extra services – and what people are most worried about locally – which is that their doctor will be plucked from their current location and put in this amorphous ‘polyclinic’ further away.

It is still unclear to me – for example – whether our new local health facility (I doubt whether it will carry on being called a polyclinic) currently rising from a building site – will be only ‘additional’ as Darzi (and ministers) claim. When building is already taking place and this is still unclear, matters are far from as clear as they should be.

It is also still unclear what services will be provided on site and what say we the people actually will have. I have no doubt that the west of Haringey needs a new health facility and it is pretty difficult to get any money spent on us – as we are always in direct comparison to Tottenham where the need is obviously greater as an area of high deprivation and unemployment. However, there is plenty of need and unemployment this side too – and quite frankly – we all need and are entitled to proper health provision.