I wrote to Havering Councillors and put up a Faceboook video about the proposed closure of the Cedar cancer unit at King George. Got a reply from BHRUT, at end of post, not good enough so will keep pushing for more information.
Dear Councillors
As a consequence of Sandie Smith writing on my Facebook page I put up a tweet on Monday morning to ask BHRUT whether it was correct that the Cedar Chemotherapy unit at King George Hospital was now only open two days a week when it used to be open for five.
The BHRUT website said yesterday it was still open for five days.
Sandie also said the Cedar unit was going to be completely closed and patients sent to Queens.
When I asked BHRUT recently on twitter as to whether it was correct that Sterile Services at King George had been closed and moved to Maidstone, they replied within 24 hours to confirm the closure.
By Wednesday afternoon, and despite me chasing, BHRUT had ignored my request from Monday. So I phoned the Cedar unit to be told it was only open two days and it is planned to closed and patients sent to Queens.
I have put up a Facebook video at: https://www.facebook.com/648170438895885/videos/654483111597951/?modal=admin_todo_tour
to persuade BHRUT to issue a statement about what is going on with the Cedar unit, but as yet I continue to be ignored. If you are supportive perhaps you could take whatever action you thought best to get BHRUT to issue a statement.
The conduct of BHRUT raises questions such as:
1 – Why were Councillors not consulted about the planned closure?
2 – Why is BHRUT breaching their own clinical services strategy, available on their website, to keep outpatients at King George?
3 – Why is BHRUT breeching their commitment to keep care close to home in their clinical services strategy?
4 – Will BHRUT provide full disclosure of the documents relating to the planned closure, especially the proposed staffing to patient ratios and the impact to the Queens car park?
5 – Can Joe Fielder, the BHRUT chair, provide an assurance that on his watch, no further cuts to services will take place until elected representatives and the public via board papers have been notified and consulted in advance?
On a separate, but related issue, a report by Deloitte about BHRUT was published earlier this week. The press reporting of this left out a key Deloitte recommendation to stop BHRUT meeting monthly. This will undermine our local democracy and make it more difficult for us to hold BHRUT to account. I encourage you to lobby for BHRUT to meet monthly in public.
Regards
Andy Walker
120 Blythswood Road IG3 8SG
Dear Andy,
Following your recent email to several councillors and the questions you’ve raised on social media I thought it might be helpful if I provided you with the following information.
In June we consolidated the number of days over which we give chemotherapy treatment in the Cedar Centre at King George Hospital from four days to three. Since then, due to changes in demand and thanks to careful management of patients, we have consolidated this further to two days, ensuring we use our resources as efficiently as possible.
We are hugely proud of our recent track record in cancer. Just this week we hit the national standard for 12 months in a row. We’ve also introduced cutting edge technology to our radiotherapy departments that is putting us on track to being one of the most advanced cancer centres in the NHS.
We are always looking at ways to improve our services and are already liaising closely with Scrutiny Committee colleagues around any potential future proposals.
We will engage and involve our patients and public in any changes we would like to make to improve the quality of their care and their experiences at our hospitals, as we routinely do.
All the very best.
Peter
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