Dear
Councillors
PFI
Funding a possibility for £49M reconfiguration of King George &
Queens Hospitals
This
is the inner London JOSC meeting at Stratford Town Hall per the link
below where PFI is given as a possibility for £95M for NHS deals in
North East London which were knocked back by the Department of Health
last year. The £49M bid for works at King George and Queens is part
of the £95M total.
A
recording of the meeting is at:
My
request for the £49Mbid document to be published is toward the end
of the meeting, it is ignored, but I will keep pressing the issue.
Inner
London Councils and the public were given an opportunity to question
NHS managers on these prospective PFI plans two days ago at this
meeting. It is odd that the same paper including these PFI options
has been left out for the outer London JOSC meeting this Tuesday at
4pm at Ilford Town Hall on the 9th April.
I
have asked Cllr Zammett, the Chair of the JOSC, for this missing
paper to be added to the agenda for the Tuesday JOSC to allow Cllrs
and the public to ask questions about these possible PFI deals.
NHS
mangers have a duty to consult before making changes to our health
service. £49M is to be spent at two hospitals King George and Queens
and we do not even know how much is to be spent at each site.
This
appears a clear breach of the NHS to consult as set out in the link
https://www.eversheds-sutherland.com/global/en/what/articles/index.page?ArticleID=en/Public-sector/The_Public_Law_Duty_to_Consult
I
quote
“the
governing principle is proportionality of the type and scale of
consultation to the potential impacts of the proposal decision being
taken, and thought should be given to achieving real engagement
rather than following bureaucratic process.”
How
can it be a proportionate consultation when we don't know exactly how
our money is to spent across two sites. Campaigners go to 10 Downing
Street on 3rd
May to ask for the £49M bid document to be published in full along
with the distribution list per the event page here
https://www.facebook.com/events/343126989892860/
Hopefully,
we will not need to go to 10 Downing Street as the papers published
at the Stratford meeting says:
“Key
stakeholder engagement • The strategic estates plan (SEP) draws
together existing plans/information submitted and prepared by each
organisation • Key stakeholders commented and reviewed SEP prior to
publication in October 2018”
The
East
London Health & Care Partnership website says:
The
East London Health & Care Partnership brings together the area’s
eight councils and 12 NHS organisations, who are combining their
expertise and resources to ensure health and care services meet the
needs of local people, now and in the future.
So
it seems certain that Redbridge has a copy of the £49M bid document,
consequently I have written to Cllr Athwal on twitter today for a
copy of it.
April
1st
Statement by BHRUT saying King George A&E is safe
This
statement does not stand scrutiny. Whether King George A&E stays
open is not determined by Council Leaders listed in the statement,
nor do the local NHS managers listed have the authority to keep open
King George A&E.
The
power to make this decision lies with the Secretary of State for
Health as his recent decision to stop the plans to close two West
London A&Es shows. The power could be delegated to The
East London Health & Care Partnership, which has not backed the
BHRUT statement. It must be reasonable to assume that the original
Redbridge Labour press release on this subject was motivated by a
desire to bump the save King George A&E march off the TV news the
next day. If this was the reason it failed, as the BBC TV news still
ran the story on the 30th
March.
Next
Planing meeting of Save King George Hospital campaign at midday on
Friday 12th
April
We
will be meeting at the Redbridge Central Library Cafe in Ilford. It
is unusual for more than 6 of us to turn up, so please let me know if
you are attending. If the prospect of a PFI deal leads to more
interest than usual it would be great if a Councillor could book a
room for a meeting at a Town Hall.
Regards
Andy
Walker
07956
263088
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