Agenda for meeting on Friday 20 April at 12 at Ilford Town Hall

Agenda for Save King George Hospital Meeting of Friday 20 January at Ilford Town Hall at midday in room 43.

1) Apologies

2) Agreeing and matters arising from minutes

3) Collection of issues to be discussed under any other business

4) Progress report from AW on public meetings

5) I received the following email on the 12 April and would like to discuss it: (my emphasis)

Dear Councillor Walker

We publish information against the agreed national clinical quality indicators for emergency care.

These include the time for initial assessment (95% should wait under 59 minutes from arrival to initial assessment). This isn’t the same as a black breach, as a patient may still have had an initial assessment and be classified as a black breach (for example, if they are still using an LAS rather than BHRUT wheelchair).

These clinical indicators do not include temporary closure of health services to some ambulances, as this system of ambulance diverts exists to protect the quality of care (for example, to make sure a patient can get a resuscitation bed by going to a hospital with one free) .

However, I can appreciate the public interest in both the number of black breaches and ambulance diverts. For March, there were 151 black breaches and 9 periods where ambulances were diverted from the Emergency department (usually for periods of one to two hours). This indicates a very busy month and that our patients weren’t always getting the prompt, local treatment we would hope they would be able to access. As you know, we are working with commissioners and primary care partners to address these whole system issues, including better access to primary care alternatives to A&E and reduced delays discharge from hospital when a patient is clinically fit. A story about A&E issues during March and some of the inappropriate attendances we received is on our website: http://www.bhrhospitals.nhs.uk/ournews/news2012item.php?id=1840

With regard to our website and publication of information, as I’ve said we are committed to transparency and hope to be able to better display information of public interest such as this in the future. If you would like to make any suggestions about this, I’d be very pleased to receive them.

Kind regards

Imogen

Imogen Shillito

Director of Communications

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust

6) AOB

7) Date of next meeting