5 February - If it ain’t broke, break it
There was a second health meeting in Bexley last week, the travelling circus
that is the South East London Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee
pitched up in Bexley which means it had the benefit of a webcast. Incidentally,
many thanks to whoever it was who turned up the wick for the Public Cabinet
meeting a week ago and kept it that way. Webcasts have been much easier to hear ever since.
To say that the SELJHOSC is a travelling circus is perhaps a little wide of the
mark because the representatives of Bromley. Greenwich, Lewisham, Lambeth and
Southwark Councils mainly chose the ‘work from home option’ as did the health
professionals. Understandable when one was from the Royal Marsden Hospital in
Sutton. The reason for that soon became apparent.
Once again the key points only approach will be adopted for this report…
• The Royal Marsden Hospital is under threat because of “reconfiguration”. It has no intensive care facilities on site and this is a new NHS requirement. The consequence is “relocating the principal treatment centre for children’s cancer in the South East”. (Not just SE London.)
• The proposal was to move it to The Evelina London Children’s Hospital (part of Guys and St. Thomas’ and near to Waterloo station) and the preferred option, or St. Georgeְ’s Hospital with radio therapy at UCL Hospital.
• The public consultation concluded in December.
• There was critical feedback about transport issues because the need to satisfy the needs of long term child patients and bring in their siblings usually demands the use of a car.
• Car parking facilities are likely to be lost.
• Long term care frequently demands a parent stays nearby for the duration of hospitalisation and central London hotel costs will be prohibitive. On the other hand there will be better access to shops etc.
• Existing staff who live locally within walking and cycling distance will be put to additional inconvenience and expense but some looked forward to enjoying the facilities found in central London.
• Some staff may migrate to other London children’s hospitals such as Great Ormond Street.
• All options are expensive and the changes cannot be made before 2026.
More generally
• The target of a one hour ambulance turn around time at hospitals (“handovers”) has not yet been achieved and A&E waiting times remain poor.
• About 50% of medically fit patients are stuck in hospital because Council provided discharge arrangements are not in place. (Bexley was said to be doing relatively well in this area.)
• Some A&E patients return two or three times a week probably due to mental health issues.
• GP availability remains poor which exacerbates the A&E issue.