I wrote the below to Cllrs in Havering, Barking and Dagenham and Redbridge earlier today
Is the Secretary of State being ignored over 228 bed closures at Queens and BHRUT?
On
29 September Councillors Canal, Streeting, Bartlett, Tarry, Dodin and
Burton went to 10 Downing Street to say the proposed closure of King
George A&E should be scrapped. The
Department of Heath sent back the attached letter to me of 17 October. I
confess not to even forwarding the letter to Councillors at the time as
it had the usual mention of a guarantee from the Secretary of State
that:
“...no changes were to take place
until he was assured that the quality of services across
maternity and A&E within Barking, Havering and Redbridge University
Hospitals NHS Trust had improved”
And
“There has been no downgrading of services at the King George Hospital”
Pages
91 Page 92 of the 2010 NHS decision making business case attached shows
740 beds at Queens and 387 beds at King George Hospital in 2010-11.
A
Freedom of Information letter from BHRUT of 11 December 2014 shows 620
beds at Queens 279 beds at King George Hospital at 11 November 2011.
This means losses of 108 beds from King George Hospital and 120 from Queens. And a total loss of 228 beds or 20.2% of the total since 2010.
The
2010 NHS target for the end of this year to achieve the closure of King
George A&E in 2014 was a cut of 250 beds given at page 91. BHRUT is
only 22 beds behind the 2010 target.
NHS statistics cut and pasted to
http://savekinggeorgehospital.wordpress.com/2014/11/23/9746-nhs-beds-lost-since-2010-no-more-should-go-from-bhrut/
show 110,568 general and acute beds 2010 being cut to 103,690 in 2014, a
reduction of 6.2%. It seems clear local residents are being treated
unfairly when it comes a fair deal from the NHS.
These
bed cuts at our hospitals suggest the plan to close King George A&E
is going ahead without democratic oversight promised by Mr Lansley, the
Secretary of State in 2011. The
public were told earlier this year there are no plans to close King
George A&E in the foreseeable future. These bed cuts appear to
undermine this claim.
This large reduction in our local NHS is impacting upon patient care. The BBC at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25055444
report 4 hour waiting times at Queens and King George of 76.4%, the
national average is 87.7%, the safe level is 95%. The bed occupancy rate
at
Queens was 94% on 11 November and at King George it was at 97.1%, both
well over the safe level of 85%. The NHS website gives the most recent
national average bed occupancy of 87.6%.
Another NHS
benchmark is Referral to Treatment within 18 weeks. I wanted to check if
BHRUT was also behind average here, but cannot report because BHRUT has
not filed the October
return, A poor showing here has the ability to impact on death rates.
I have put in a FoI for the number of medical staff employed by BHRUT in our hospitals on 1st
January 2010 and how many are employed today using the same methodology
used by the NHS when at page 123 of the attached decision making
business case. Page 123 of this staff shows 25% of the medical posts to
go by next year since 2011 and I am concerned we may have lost a large
number of medical staff as well as beds.
I have a
meeting with BHRUT on Tuesday 9:30, it seems an ideal time to ask
questions about whether Mr Lansley’s promise is being adhered too.
Please let me know if you can attend
too.
If
no evidence of can be provided of these large bed cuts being signed off
by Mr Hunt the Secretary of State for Health, then there appear grounds
for asking him to reverse the
bed cuts as part of the improvement plan for Queens and King George
Hospitals.
Both QH and KGH seem to have been "downgraded"
Regards
Andy Walker 07956 263088
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