I wrote to Havering Cllrs earlier today to plug the 11th September public meeting
Dear Havering Councillors
Don't Overload Queens Hospital Public Meeting- 11th September 2017 Romford Central Library
King George A&E is set to close in 2019 (1). Redbridge Council is the only Council in North East London to formally write to Mr Hunt the Secretary of State for Health to request that the King George closure plan be reviewed due to the expanding North East London population (2)
It has to be a concern that the acute bed and staffing cuts that have already taken place at King George Hospital in preparation for the closure of King George A&E are already adversely impacting upon patient care.
The decision making business case for closing King George A&E published on 15th December 2010 gave at page 124 a reduction of medical posts at King George and Queens Hospitals from 912 in 2011 to 704 posts by the then proposed closure date of 2015. These staffing cuts could not be managed safely by 2015, campaigners believe that they cannot be made safely by 2019 either.
There is evidence to show that the NHS in North East London needs more resources to cope with the growing population rather than less. Long waits at A&E are linked with worse patient outcomes. The extract below is from the NHS website http://www.nhsimas.nhs.uk/ist/how-to-stabilise-emergency-care-in-england/
“There is strong evidence that the symptoms felt in emergency departments led to worse patient outcomes. We know, for example, that patients run a 43 per cent increased risk of death after 10 days if they are admitted through a crowded accident and emergency (A&E) department. (Richardson DB, 2006) Waiting for admission in A&E is also associated with significantly longer hospital length of stay – on average 2.35 days longer where a patient stays in A&E for more than 12 hours. (Liew D, Kennedy M, 2003)
We know that speed of treatment is vital in many conditions. For example, people with the most severe form of pneumonia have less than a one in two chance of surviving. Those chances improve considerably if effective treatment is started early. However, research suggests that delays of more than four hours in administration of antibiotics to patients coming into hospital with pneumonia can affect 70 per cent of patients on days when an A&E is crowded. (Pine JM et al, 2005)This undoubtedly affects mortality.”
Barking Havering and Redbridge University Hopsitals Trust (BHRUT), the management team for King George and Queens Hospitals misses the 95% safety 4 hour A&E safety benchmark most months, sometimes by a a large margin. King George and Queens are also very busy with an all time record A&E attendance in excess of over 25000 earlier this year. The research above predicts a higher than average death rate for pneumonia cases for King George and Queens Hospitals.
As expected King George and Queens do have a higher than average pneumonia death rates and BHRUT commissioned a report into the excess deaths with publication originally expected in February 2017. This date was missed and July 2017 given as a new publication date, but also missed. September 2017 was given at the July meeting as the new publication date, but this has also been missed in the September BHRUT board papers.
BHRUT has an issue with excess deaths, not just pneumonia, but sepsis and urinary tract infections too. All conditions where speed of treatment is vital.
The substantial bed and staffing cuts caused by closing King George A&E in 2019 seem bound to lead to overloading of nearby Queens and Whips Hospitals with a real risk of a deterioration in death rates. The NHS management need to think again about the King George A&E closure plans even if that means making a public call for the funding to keep King George A&E open.
The unpublished excess pneumonia death report needs to be published now. To keep the report secret will only encourage unhelpful speculation.
The British Thoracic Society reported in August 2016 that “Hospital deaths from pneumonia show significant fall as guidelines drive improvements in hospital care and treatment” A key factor for the improved death rates is given as
- An 11.5% increase in the proportion of adults who received their first dose of antibiotics within 4 hours of being admitted to hospital
The article continues:
“Overall, pneumonia is the sixth biggest cause of death in the UK. It kills 29,000 people a year and is the third biggest cause of death from lung disease – with deaths mainly occurring in older people and children & babies under 10 years.”
I have copied in the BHRUT Trust Secretary for any comments the Trust might want to make.
The more people you have on your side in any campaign the more likely you are to succeed. Redbridge Council stands alone in North East London with the only formal request for a review of the King George A&E closure decision. Should other Councils come on board as well it would be a real boost to the campaign.
I hope you can come to the public meeting on the 11th September at Romford Central Library per the flyer attached.
A march will take place on 14th October from Dagenham Central Park to Redbridge Town Hall via Queens hospital with Cllr Athwal and Wes Streeting among the speakers. The aim is unite North East London to say King George A&E must stay open.
Regards
Andy Walker
120 Blythswood Road
Ilford IG3 8SG
http://savekinggeorgehospital.blogspot.co.uk/
07956 263088
- http://www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk/news/health/health-minister-king-george-hospital-a-e-closure-plan-is-being-assessed-to-ensure-it-is-still-appropriate-1-5129525
- Cllr Athwal leader of Redbridge Council wrote to Mr Hunt seeking a review of the closure decision on 19th August 2015.
- Further references are at https://redbridgetradeunionparty.wordpress.com/2017/09/01/why-is-bhrut-refusing-to-publish-the-report-into-excess-pneumonia-deaths-at-king-george-and-queens-hospitals/ https://redbridgetradeunionparty.wordpress.com/2017/09/01/why-is-bhrut-refusing-to-publish-the-report-into-excess-pneumonia-deaths-at-king-george-and-queens-hospitals/
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