I sent the below to Cllrs in Barking and Dagenham, Havering & Redbridge earlier this evening. Without the publication of the £49M bid document to "reconfigure" King George his claims at http://www.redbridgelabour.org.uk/newsblog/2019/03/29/ae-services-at-king-george-will-remain-open/ cannot be verified.
Dear Councillors
Jas Athwal and other Council leaders have issued a baffling statement to say King George A&E is secure.
There is a new plan to close King George A&E at page 15 of the strategic estates plan below (1)
Funding is being sought to implement this plan at 18 for £49M to “reconfigure” acute care at King George and Queens, this has always been NHS manager code for closing KGH A&E.
I invite Cllr Athwal to attend the meeting tomorrow with a copy of the plan to spend £49M on King George and Queens and talk it through with us and also publish the £49M bid document in its entirety.
The way for Cllr Athwal to end claims that a new plan to close King George A&E exists is to publish the £49M bid document in full. Something he is conspicuously unwilling to do.
Both Wes Streeting MP and Keith Prince AM have called for the £49M bid document to be published in full immediately.
The NHS is ours, to make this slogan a reality key documents such as the £49M bid document need to be published and go to council health scrutiny committees. This has not happened.
As well as the £49M bid two other bids were made for maternity and children services totalling £22M at Queens. Cllr Athwal needs to disclose how much of this £49M was/is meant to be spent at King George is it £5M, £10M? A definite sum needs to be provided. How do we know if he is doing his job properly if we do not even know how much money he is advocating to be invested in King George Hospital?
So the campaign continues to stop the new plan to close King George A&E.
At 11:20am this morning I sent the email below (2) to a TV newsdesk manager who expressed interest about the campaign to stop the new plan. The statement by Jas is clearly designed to stop TV coming to King George.
I will do my best early tomorrow morning to persuade TV news to attend. I will be outside King George at 10:30 if it makes it easier for the journalist to come along. I am on 07956 263088 should you wish to be available for interview.
Regards
Andy
- Summary version of STRATEGIC ESTATES PLAN at http://eastlondonhcp.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/STRATEGIC-ESTATES-PLAN-summary.pdf
(2) Email sent by me to a TV news person at 11:20am
Dear TV News planner
Thank you for taking my call earlier.
As discussed we have a save King George A&E meeting tomorrow at 3pm at Ilford Town with a march assembling at 2pm outside the hospital.
Should you wish to send a journalist along, I expect we will be able to arrange people to meet you outside the hospital earlier if better for you.
There is a ongoing row about a 2018 failed £49M bid document to "reconfigure" King George and Queens hospitals. I say the document is still a live issue because at a Redbridge Clinical Commissioning Group meeting when challenged about the document, the NHS manager did not deny it was still part of their strategy, but continued to suppress it relying on the Freedom of Information process.
An audio Facebook recording is here, the NHS manager speaks at the end of the meeting.
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I say suppressing the document undermines our local democracy. How can our politicians and the public have influence about what is happening to our NHS when such key documents are kept secret?
My claim that there is a new plan to close King George A&E is also contested. Keith Prince AM and Wes Streeting MP support the immediate and full publication of the bid document. Cllr Athwal the Leader of Redbridge Council does not want the document released nor will he speak at the meeting tomorrow for the reasons at the Facebook broadcast here Andy Walker Cllr Athwal speaks towards the end of the video.
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A key document is being suppressed in an effort to cover up legitimate public and political scrutiny of a new plan to close King George A&E. If NHS disagree they have to do is publish the document.
Wes Streeting MP differs calling me "highly irresponsible" , but as mentioned above he and Keith Prince want the document published. Mike Gapes MP has not said anything about this £49M bid so far.
Labour party members Sam Tarry, who previously worked on Jeremy Corbyn's campaign and Sonia Klein, a previous Labour parliamentary candidate will be on the platform tomorrow to speak against the new plan to close King George A&E.
Regards
Andy Walker
120 Blythswood Road IG3 8SG
PS more info below
Sent: Thursday, 28 March 2019, 21:13:07 GMT
Subject: Can you help promote the Save King George A&E rally this Saturday 2pm 30th March outside King George to a meeting at 3pm at Ilford Town
Dear KGH Campaigners
There will be a save King George A&E rally this Saturday at 3pm at Ilford Town Hall with a walk from King George at 2pm.
Speakers are at the poster attached. Since printing the poster Labour members Sam Tarry, Sonia Klein will also be speaking.
I regret to say the meeting does not have complete support. Organisations supporting include Redbridge Trades Council and Ilford Momentum, although it must be said an effort has been made to build a cross party platform across the spectrum.
Cllr Athwal has come out against, however, it must be said he has made the very welcome gesture of encouraging dissent by displaying a banner at the Town Hall per the post here:
A key aim of the 30th meeting is to get a 2018 £49M failed bid document to reconfigure King George and Queens to be published in full has the support of Keith Prince and Wes Streeting. However, they do not support my claim that a new plan to close King George A&E has been produced and is ongoing. I say the review of King George is a sham and for it to become genuine BHRUT have to be removed from the review and someone independent put in charge. Four of the speakers had a letter published in the Recorder internet version on this earlier this month which is copied at the end of this email.
There is a petition calling for the £49M bid to be published at the link below. The bid is not irrelevant history, BHRUT are still pursuing the bid per my tweet from the Redbridge CCG meeting today which has not been challenged by the CCG.
An event page is at
Time FM press at
The three funding proposals which included the £49M bid to reconfigure King George and Queens need to withdrawn and new proposals with greater funding sought and involve council scrutiny committees per the petition here:
As yet Mike Gapes has made no comment on the meeting.
Regards
Andy
Recorder letter below
Bob Archer, secretary, Redbridge Trades Council; Cllr Nic Dodin, Havering; Pete Mason, Socialist Party and RoseMary Warrington, prospective Parliamentary Candidate, write:
The Ambulatory Care Unit at King George Hospital, which provides same day emergency care for the elderly frail discriminates against the younger patients who are transferred to Queen’s.
When challenged about this, NHS managers say that the “low levels of admitted adult patients” at King George justify this discrimination.
This argument does not stand scrutiny. Other hospitals in east London provide ambulatory care for all ages. Worthing Hospital, with a high proportion of elderly residents, provides ambulatory care for all residents. NHS managers have failed to deliver on a promise to provide a briefing on January 21.
Without this briefing, it seems reasonable to believe that the discrimination is motivated by the new plan to close King George A&E and turn King George into a centre of excellence for the elderly published in October 2018. Local NHS managers sought £49m funding to implement this new plan to close King George A&E despite committing to a review of the closure in 2017.
There is a walk from King George Hospital at 2pm for a meeting at 3pm Ilford Town Hall on March 30 to say this new plan to close King George A&E needs to be scrapped and that local NHS managers are not suited to carry out the review into King George as they are biased in favour of closing King George A&E
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