Lewisham A&E closure threat: history repeated

[perryman]

Urgent care centre = minor injury centre or walk-in centre.

http://www.nhs.uk/servicedirectories/Pa ... lkInCentre

Walk-in centres in my experience are run by nurses, which is fine, but they cannot for instances prescribe anti-biotics. So they cannot in fact treat relatively minor problems like 'infections and rashes', other than to suggest you go to A&E.

If Lewisham A&E is instead replaced by a minor injury centre, it is still is not clear if any doctors would be available, and presumably it is their expertise that costs.
But if as suggested, it did not treat children, 'alcoho' related problems (?!), chest and stomach pains, problems usually dealt with by a GP, nor conditions likely to require hospital admission, etc etc then it is likely to be pretty empty in any case.

I do not think we should be fooled here - if A&E were to close for financial reasons, then it is not going to be replaced with a unit that picks up most of the problems, or there would be no point.

So is it reasonable for those without a car (and that surely is a majority in Lewisham), to take 2 or more buses running a weekend/evening/night service to get to A&E? Or travel by train via central london? Or will ambulance pick up be available to ferry all to Woolwich and back? I doubt it.

We cannot be complacent as we also by chance have Kings A&E reasonably close by, because we would have no say on that unit closing. The only say we have is on the Lewisham unit.

[Eagle]

I cannot really see how it will save any money overall. Assuming the same number of persons require being seen and they all go to Woolwich , they will need a unit as big as both of the units now, staffed by the same number in both sites.

Only way to save money is for less people to turn up. Maybe they think people will not bother and suffer in silence.
I expect the drunks will still turn up on the weekend. People whose problem caused by excess alcohol should be charged.

Let us pray nothing happens. I hope all have signed petition and e mailed as requested their views.

[Bazman76]

Eagle as exaplined here this closure is Tory policy:

http://www.savelewishamhospital.com/why ... wisham-ae/

which I (and you) voted for.

I regret my decision do you?

[Bazman76]

Lewisham A&E is to be closed for the sake of £17m, this is a drop in the ocean compared to the taxes that are being evaded by large copanies in the UK at present.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... m-tax.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 58782.html

These missed taxes would easily pay for Lewisham A&E and many others, please join the campaign http://ukuncut.org.uk/ to help ensure that companies that grow rich on the sale of their products in the UK pay their fair share of tax.

Also please take a look at this

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/complain-to-HMRC

[Heritage Angle]

To those who assisted in the local leafletting, a huge thanks. If money was no object........(I wonder if the "special administrator" mathew kershaw (lower case will suffice) thinks that too). EVRYBODY - thanks for signing the petition/s but please do attend the open public meeting on Thursday [tomorrow now] 8th November. Have your say and support your local hospital's A&E because if that goes then so do certain other immediate care services and following on from that.....who knows what and when! This issue is so utterly critical to all of us within the catchment area. ALL of us! (that don't have access to private healthcare that is). Please tell everbody about the meeting and the activity on Sat 24th. Lets stop being a nation of bl**** moaners and start winning against these nasty ***'s! All the best.

[Chris Best]

Great turnout for the public meeting last night with Heidi Alexander MP starting the speeches by letting everyone know about the exchange with our Prime Minister at PMQ's on the 31 October - here is the transcript; Q14.[125640]
Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab):
In 2007 the Prime Minister identified Lewisham hospital as one of 29 hospitals he would be prepared to bet into a “bare-knuckle fight” over, yet on Monday it emerged that Lewisham’s A and E and maternity services could end up paying the price for financial failures elsewhere in the NHS. Which side of this bare-knuckle fight is he now on?
The Prime Minister:
We are on the side of the fight for increasing the resources going into the NHS—that is a decision we have taken—including extra money going into Lewisham, and the hon. Lady is on the side of cutting the money going into the NHS. What we have done, which the previous Government did not do, is to set out that there will be no changes to NHS configurations unless they have the support of local GPs, unless they have strong public and patient engagement, unless they are backed by sound clinical evidence and unless they provide support for patient choice. Those sorts of protections were never in place under the previous Government, but they are now.

The Trust Special Administrator has arranged three hospital consultation public meetings in Lewisham on

Friday 16th November – 10:00 to 12:00 Goldsmiths College, New Cross
Monday 26th November – 14:00 to 16:00 St Andrew's Centre, Brockley
Tuesday 4th December – 19:00 to 21:00 Calabash Day Centre, George Lane

As there is no meeting to cover this part of Lewisham I have been liaising with the Sydenham Society and the TSA to arrange an evening meeting on Thursday 6th December. Once this is confirmed I will post more details.

[Chris Best]

Confirming that the Sydenham Assembly Coordinator's Group and the Sydenham Society have arranged a Lewisham Hospital Public Consultation meeting at Sydenham School, Dartmouth Road starting at 7.30 on Thursday 6 December.

Dr Jane Fryer, Chief Medical Advisor to the Trust Special Administrator, will present the draft recommendations set out in the TSA report. I spoke to Jane after the TSA public consultation meeting on Friday and we discussed a number of the issues that have already been raised -

- PFI issues and renegotiations with the contractor
- Transport arrangements to get to Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in Woolwich given it can take an hour by bus from Lewisham to Woolwich
- A & E capacity at Kings if 37% of Lewisham residents will use Kings rather than QEH
- Maternity provision at Lewisham – 4,400 births last year – and no additional capacity in South East London
- Older people need admission for general medical conditions such as falls or respiratory problems – a big issue if they are taken to QEH in terms of distance for carers, friends and relatives to visit
- More time needed for the community to consider alternatives – 30 days to short for such a major change and there is a need more dialogue with GPs on community provision

Please come along to this public consultation meeting - the TSA will be bringing along the short video and consultation packs - so please make your views known through the feedback forms as well as asking questions, giving comments and offering any alternatives.

[Chris Best]

Join the march today to save Lewisham Hospital's A&E, maternity services and keeping integrated community care services in our borough. The march, which has been organised by the Save Lewisham Hospital campaign group, will leave from 2pm at the Loampit Vale roundabout opposite Lewisham Train station. We will walk down Lewisham High street for a public rally outside the Hospital at around 3pm. We will link hands around the hospital. All are welcome to join the peaceful, family-friendly demonstration.

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[Robin Orton]

My wife has just come back from the demo. She says there was a very good turnout, despite the weather - she couldn't actually get anywhere near the hospital itself, the crowds were so big - and that the event seemed very well organised.

[CaptainCarCrash]

Demonstrations against cuts are futile under this government, their rhetoric will not change. I imagine they will say "We hear what people have said but this wont sway us from our goal to reduce the deficit."

Good to exercise peoples democratic right to protest though and long may it continue.

[Miserableold-ishgit]

https://www.facebook.com/savelewishamhospitalnhs

[Eagle]

Good to see Miserable G back with us. Seems like ages.
Unlike MG I will have no truck with Facebook.

Mike I agree protests often ignored but does not mean one should not try.

[Chris Best]

Public consultation meetings this week - tomorrow evening 7pm at the Calabash Centre and Thursday evening at 7.30pm in Sydenham School, Dartmouth Road.

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[Chris Best]

Please make sure you respond to the public consultation which ends at midnight tomorrow, Thursday.

If you are concerned about the future of A&E and Maternity Services at Lewisham Hospital, take a look at http://www.savelewishamhospital.com/

Lewisham Council and Lewisham Hospital have responded setting out reasons why the proposals won't work and a thread through all the responses is concern for patient safety. My favourite question is why are the TSA stealing from the neighbours - the draft recommendations set out a financial solution that includes selling off 58% of the Lewisham Hospital site leaving no space for the reconfiguration included in the proposals. Matthew Kershaw has said he has a difficult challenge so please let him know the strength of opposition to his draft recommendations.

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[Chris Best]

I have just been reading the responses to the TSA draft recommendations -

Lewisham Council's response - http://councilmeetings.lewisham.gov.uk/ ... %20TSA.pdf along with the report from Frontline http://councilmeetings.lewisham.gov.uk/ ... report.pdf providing the expert analysis.

The Council has included the legal position and states that the way in which the draft report is expressed indicates that there may be a risk, and the Council puts it no higher than that, that the TSA will make ultra vires recommendations to the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of State may purport to implement those. The Council makes clear now that if the Secretary of State does makes a decision, without further consultation or public involvement, to implement draft recommendations of the TSA (if any) which do affect other NHS bodies, the Council will have to consider whether or not to apply for judicial review of that decision.

Lewisham Hospital have responded - http://www.savelewishamhospital.com/wp- ... -Final.pdf with the preferred option to retain obstetric-led maternity services on the Lewisham site.

The Bishop of Woolwich and his colleagues have also responded - http://www.savelewishamhospital.com/wp- ... sponse.pdf with a focus on what this means for Lewisham Hospital.

Save Lewisham Hospital have also put up the response from Jim Dowd MP - http://www.savelewishamhospital.com/jim-dowd-mp/ and the letter from Andy Burnham http://www.savelewishamhospital.com/wp- ... letter.pdf Shadow Secretary of Health to Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of Health. Matthew Kershaw will be submitting his final report to Jeremy Hunt by the 7 January.

In my own response I highlighted the following points:

Local residents were concerned when the Sydenham Children’s Hospital closed in 1991 and are just as concerned today with the proposed loss of A&E and Maternity Services at Lewisham Hospital.

Sydenham is an area of deprivation with two large housing estates at Hazel Grove and Hillcrest and in Lewisham we are projecting some 5,000 births a year. We have heard from local midwives that there is no spare capacity in the system at present so my concern is where the capacity will be found in the future. There are excellent links between the local GPs, midwives and obstetricians and local community midwives and health visitors. I believe all this integrated work is now at risk and I strongly believe obstetric-led maternity services should be provided at Lewisham Hospital.

Lewisham Hospital is at the heart of Lewisham. We have started a programme of integration with our adult social care services and have signed a Section 75 agreement for joint working. As a local authority we have been developing our relationship with local GPs and believe we have made a good start of in working through our priorities at the Shadow Health and Well Being Board. These strong partnerships are beginning to deliver better community-based care and the proposal to close ED and admission wards will have serious consequences for older people.

We know older people get confused and the recent reports show the need for more care and compassion in the system not less. I would ask you to reconsider your recommendations and allow medical admissions to Lewisham Hospital. At present older people are admitted for observation after a fall, diabetes or a respiratory problem and it is essential that they are kept in the local setting so that they can be stabilised before discharge. We have integrated pathways to ensure older people are back into our community-based care as soon as appropriate so that we can offer continuity of care in the centre of our community. I am concerned with the deliverability of the Community Based Care Strategy as set out in the TSA draft recommendations, as in Lewisham we are well on the way to delivering our own strategy.

I do not support the shift of emergency services away from Lewisham and believe that the TSA’s recommendations will result in worse health care for local people.

The report looks at the health care system and not the health and social care system. The commissioning intentions cannot be delivered unless health and social care is seen as a system and the financial consequences on both need to be considered, and factored in.

I look forward to seeing the final report and if any of the points made in the responses are taken on board.

[angela53]

The Special Administrator has sent his final report to the Secretary of State for Health today. The report will be laid before Parliament and published tomorrow.

[Chris Best]

The final report has been submitted to Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health - https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... ways_2.pdf - some 122 pages and 15 appendices. In the foreword Matthew Kershaw highlights the concerns of Lewisham residents saying that 50% of residents will be able to attend the urgent care centre. This is a significant reduction from the 77% of residents expected to use the service in the draft report. We must now focus on Jeremy Hunt to show the strength of feeling in Lewisham and urge him to reject the recommendation to close A&E and all the changes that follow on from this. Join the march on Saturday 26 January to show your support for our much needed hospital.

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[michael]

Some useful information passed on to me by email. Please take a couple of minutes to use the link below to email Jeremy Hunt.

Lewisham hospital is in danger. Right now, Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, is considering closing vital hospital services, which could leave 750,000 people with just one casualty department between them. [1]

Lewisham Hospital is a well-performing hospital, and the casualty department has just had an expensive refurbishment. Patients, doctors and even some of Lewisham's health chiefs are all opposed to the closure. [2]

Jeremy Hunt could give in to the political pressure to close these NHS services. But together, we can make this a test for Hunt. He's been working hard to present himself as the voice of patients. If thousands of us email him to oppose the plans, he'll be under huge pressure to prove he listens to patients and keep services open.

Could you send a quick email now telling Jeremy Hunt not to close vital NHS services in South London? It only takes two minutes:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-lewisham

Already the people of Lewisham and the surrounding area have taken to the streets in their thousands to save their A&E, intensive care and maternity units. We could ramp up the pressure on Jeremy Hunt if thousands of us email him directly. We can make him think twice about overruling patients, doctors and local health chiefs.

We all rely on NHS services to be there to help us when we're most in need. If these hospital services close, patients will have to travel further and queue longer. Other nearby hospitals are already stretched - just recently ambulances have been diverted to Lewisham hospital to pick up the slack. [3]

Click here to send a quick email now:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-lewisham

Last week we had a brilliant NHS breakthrough. Monitor, the NHS competition watchdog, listened to public pressure not to let private healthcare companies avoid corporation tax. [4]

This happened after tens of thousands of 38 Degrees members emailed them to object to the proposed tax breaks. Now we can do the same with Jeremy Hunt. Please write your email here:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-lewisham


Thanks for being involved,

James, Ian, Becky and the 38 Degrees team


PS: Campaigners from 'Save Lewisham A&E' have organised a march to save these vital hospital services on Saturday 26th January. [5] We'll be meeting outside the The Anglican Parish Church of Saint Stephen and Saint Mark, Lewisham High Street, London, SE13 5AJ at 11.30am. Are you free to come along too?

Please pop the office team an email so we have enough placards for everyone: ccgsupport@38degrees.org.uk


NOTES
[1] Guardian: Lewisham hospital's fury at £195m bill for A&E closure http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jan/1 ... ll-closure
[2] London 24: Lewisham A&E closure proposals 'unsafe, rushed and unjust' http://www.london24.com/news/health/lew ... _1_1785896
Pulse: Lewisham A&E set to close despite CCG opposition http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/commis ... P03GCc02tw
[3] Evening Standard: Hospitals set to handle thousands of extra births 'cannot cope now' http://www.standard.co.uk/news/educatio ... 44002.html
[4] 38 Degrees Blog: Update: Breakthrough http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2013/01/16 ... akthrough/
[5] Save Lewisham Hospital: Demonstration - 26th January http://www.savelewishamhospital.com/dem ... h-january/

[Bazman76]

I used this the link provides a template to which you can add as little of much as you like.

Really takes less than two minutes.

[Eagle]

Thanks Michael I will certainly action.

I have seen local MP's on TV complaining about the possible closure but have not seen Mr Dowd.

Is it just that I have missed him or is he not involved.

Often watch Parliament Programme at midday and read quality papers but have not seen him or his name mentioned for some time.