Earlier today I wrote to a Havering Councillor about the £49M bid to reconfigure King George & Queens who copied in all Councillors so I wrote back to all Councillors as folllows:
Dear Councillor
Thank you for your email. I have asked BHRUT for the £49M bid document to re-configure King George and Queens as has Cllrs Nic Dodin, David Edgar, Keith Prince AM & Wes Streeting MP. BHRUT have ignored my Freedom of Information request for the bid document dated 1st March, I have commenced the next stage of the appeal process which is a request for an internal review. Should BHRUT continue to refuse to publish the document, I can make a further appeal to the Information Commissioner's Office. The final judgement about whether BHRUT have to disclose the document could be months away.
The four documents supporting the £49M bid to reconfigure King George and Queens is a plan to close King George A&E
1) The original closure plan passed in 2011 HERE at page 27 states
4.2 Capital Expenditure Implications Estimates have been prepared of the capital investment that would be required to deliver the proposals. Investment would be required: At Queen’s Hospital: to create a Midwifery-Led Unit (MLU) and to increase capacity for the activity displaced following the closure of the A&E department and the obstetric unit at King George Hospital. At Whipps Cross Hospital: to extend the MLU and in the variant scenario to further increase maternity capacity. At Newham Hospital: to create additional maternity capacity for the variant scenario. At King George Hospital: to convert obstetric operating theatres for elective surgery and to refurbish vacated clinical space for new functions. The estimated capital cost of the variant scenario is £35.9m.
2) The 2017 Redbridge Infrastructure local plan HERE with the implication of no future for King George A&E
I quote from page 30
"8.7 There has been significant investment in the last decade with 13 new ‘polyclinic’ health centres, Queen’s Hospital PFI and Barking Community Hospital all newly built. These centres will be at the centre of future care delivery."
& at page 33
8.14 Barking & Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge (BHR) Clinical Commissioning Groups are developing a Local Strategic Estate Plan (SEP) which is intended to support the health economy to create a fit for purpose estate at less cost, specifically addressing: changes in demography and population demand; changes in the way that health care services are provided - specifically reflecting plans for integrated health and social care, greater levels of care within communities and new commissioning models; challenges in funding and affordability. (My emphasis on a SEP at less cost)
3) In October 2018 the Local Strategic Estate Plan (SEP) is published HERE, substantial spending proposals are made to turn options into a reality.
The options are at page 15 below with no A&E at King George A&E
"Current options for change
Queen’s Hospital Queen’s Hospital has one of the busiest and largest emergency departments in England, and so development at Queen’s will be focused on emergency and acute medicine, emergency surgery and acute children’s services. In addition, maternity facilities could also be expandedand developed to manage the continued growth in the number of births in north east London. To facilitate this development, the renal unit at Queens could be moved to the new St. George’s hub with non-acute care of older people, and some elective surgical services moved to King George Hospital. (my emphasis)
King George We aspire to develop a new centre of excellence for healthy ageing, working in collaboration with community care, primary care and social services to offer a fully integrated model of healthcare for older people. Centralising planned care will increase the use of beds and theatres. These changes, together with the adjacent Goodmayes Hospital site, create a strategic opportunity to develop a coherent masterplan for housing, education, community and primary health care, maximising land value across the two hospital sites."
The proposals to turn these options into a reality are listed are at page 18 and 19
"Sustainability and transformation partnership capital funding A new national £2.6bn capital fund was announced in the 2017 budget. In July 2018 STPs were invited to submit funding bids for schemes with a total value of over £100km, and schemes they aimed to deliver before 2022/23. The Partnership submitted bids for the following projects:
• St Georges Hospital – a new community hub
• Whipps Cross Hospital redevelopment programme management costs
• St James’s Health Centre new development
• Queens and King George Hospitals reconfiguration
• City and Hackney primary care improvements
• Expansion of Queens Hospital maternity unit
Children’s and Young Person’s Assessment Unit at Queen’s Hospital
• Barts Health Orthopaedic Centre at Newham Hospital"
It was not until earlier this year that the costings were published, with £49M for the King George and Queens reconfiguration,
4) The March 2019 BHRUT board papers HERE give an example of reconfiguration as follows
"The Trust had been progressing an internal service reconfiguration whereby Holly Ward at King George’s Hospital would be transferred to Clementine B Ward at Queen’s Hospital.The Trust confirmed that the service at King George’s Hospital would be nurse-led with no geriatric medicine trainee doctors allocated to the service. The planned date of this reconfiguration of moving to a nurse-led service, supervised by 2 consultants was April 2019, resulting in improved management of outlier patients. The Trust were in the process of training the nurses to ensure that they had the required skills prior to the nurse-led service coming into effect. The ward was currently an acute ward with Trust grade doctors providing the service with consultant cover. The Chief Nurse was managing the transition but there was a recognition that the Trust would need to develop a multi-professional workforce to support service delivery." (my emphasis)
The board is refusing to say whether this this is a apparent loss of acute capacity at King George means that a ward has been lost to emergency admissions and has been replaced by a community ward for planned admissions only.
Regards
Andy
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