Dr Moosa Qureshi will be speaking at the 11th May meeting

Delighted to report that Dr Moosa Qureshi, a hospital doctor and  leukaemia researcher at Cambridge University, will be speaking at the 6pm May 11th meeting at Ilford Central Library calling for more GPs for Redbridge

Jackie Applebee a GP from Tower Hamlets will be speaking on May 11

Delighted to report that Jackie Applebee a GP from Tower Hamlets will be speaking at the 6pm May 11th meeting at Ilford Central Library calling for more GPs.

Jackie spoke at the Valentine's park on the 18th March Save KGH A&E march and rally.

Danielle Tiplady has confirmed as speaker for GP meeting on 11th May at 6pm at Ilford Library

Delighted to report that NHS activist, Danielle Tiplady, will be speaking at the meeting calling for more GPs at Ilford Central Library on 11th May at 6pm

Next Save KGH A&E meeting is on 14th October

Delighted to report next save King George Hospital A&E march will be from Queens Hospital to Redbridge Town Hall on the afternoon of 14th October.

Earlier this evening, a third organisation, North East London Save our NHS, has come out in support of the event.

The reason for the event is to seek to persuade Havering Council to do the same as Redbridge and write to the Secretary of State for Health seeking the closure decision be reviewed.

More details to follow.

Melvyn Weinberg MBE writes on the current situation

Dear Mr Walker,

As the former chair of the Redbridge CCG Forum and a long standing chairman of a large practice PPG group, I hope you will allow me to make the following comments on the current situation:-

• We are facing a great shortage of G P's, with the position likely to get worse with the retirement of older G P's
• Many practices find it very difficult to recruit qualified practice nurses.
• There is also a shortage of District nurses.
• Many local practices struggle to cope with existing demand.
• The population of Redbridge is predicted to rise significantly over the next 5 to 10 years, yet the health infrastructure to cope is just not keeping pace.
• I cannot see how the proposed closure of King George A & E will help the situation. Queens is already under special measures and, is only just coping with its own local the current demand.
• I question if the Secretary of State has really taken into account the predicted population growth.
• More and more flats are being built, with no thought as to how local general practice and the local NHS will cope.
• Far to often money is dictating clinical policy.
• It is more than possible that the current CCG set up will be done away with, resulting in yet more upheaval in he NHS.

Best Wishes

Melvyn Weinberg MBE

May 11th Meeting at 6pm at Ilford Central Library on GP Shortage

The Redbridge GP shortage impacts upon care at King George Hospital. I explain how in a email below to Redbridge Councillors earlier today.

Dear Councillors

I attended the last Redbridge Clinical Commissioning Group board meeting on 30^th March to hear Dr Metha, the Chair complain of a shortage of Redbridge GPs impacting upon care at King George Hospital.

This is due to patients turning up at King George Hospital because they cannot get a GP appointment. It was reported by Dr Metha that average GP list size in Redbridge is 2600 whereas some other boroughs it is as low as 1700. The situation seems set to get worse with GPs retiring not being replaced.

There is strong evidence that overcrowded A&E departments lead to worse patient outcomes, including longer stays in hospital and worse mortality rates (1). So we need more GPs in Redbridge as a matter of urgency to ease the pressure on King George A&E.

To discuss what needs to be done to improve the situation I have, after consulting with others, called a meeting at Ilford Library on the 11^th May at 6pm just before full council. Redbridge Trades Council is promoting this meeting and I will hope other organisations will support too.

Jas has made a commitment to providing a statement about the issue for the 11^th May meeting at cabinet earlier this month. I hope there will be some Councillor representation across the parties at the meeting as there was for a save King George A&E meeting at the library last year.

Should Councillors from the main parties attend I will ask the Recorder if one of their journalists would like to chair the meeting.

I attended a inner London Clinical Commissioning Group meeting yesterday to find this in the board papers (2).

“Workforce - Summary In order to meet the shortfall of supply of GPs in EL, (high retirement rates and a shortage of available new GPs) and to develop a more efficient, patient-centred service, we will need to develop and increase the numbers of practice nurses, physician associates and pharmacists to provide a full multi-disciplinary team (MDT) workforce model. We are currently on target to deliver physician associate training placements in 2017 and a workforce supply in 2019. We have a pharmacist pilot programme in Newham GP practices and will look to expand this across TST in 2017-18.”

It seems rather than replace GPs in East London (EL) with new GPs, the shortfall is to be made up with “practice nurses, physician associates and pharmacists”. On the face of it, this seems an inferior GP service to the current one and it must be a concern that a similar GP downgrade is being planned for Redbridge. Cutting the number of GPs in East London seems bound to make some patients pay for private GP consultations which is likely to reduce the number of NHS GPs available (3).

I am hoping that Redbridge CCG will send a representative to the meeting or make a statement about the GP shortage.

It is puzzling that current regulations seem to stop a single handed GP starting up from scratch in Redbridge in a converted house. Purpose built, multi-disciplinary and multi-partner surgeries may be better than single GP practices, but they are not happening in sufficient numbers to tackle the GP shortage.

I hope representatives from each of the parties will attend, even if the council meeting starting later in the evening means Councillors may not be able to attend for the whole meeting.

The meeting will be broadcast live on facebook.

Regards

Andy

Save King George Hospital

Save King George Hospital The Save King George Hospital campaign is a multi-party, multi-faith campaign to stop the proposed closure of A&...

1. http://www.nhsimas.nhs.uk/ist/how-to-stabilise-emergency-care-in-england/
   the key quote from the site above is:

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

2. The full board papers are at https://democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk/documents/g7540/Public%20reports%20pack%2019th-Apr-2017%2018.30%20Inner%20North%20East%20London%20Joint%20Health%20Overview%20Scrutiny%20C.pdf?T=10
   The quote is from page 49
3. I cut and paste below some of the ads for private GPs on the net today

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• Online Walk-In Centre »
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  • Private GP £55 - citydoc.org.uk‎

Adwww.citydoc.org.uk/PrivateGP‎020 7256 8668

Same Day Moorgate/Oxford Circus Walk In, Phone or Book Online

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  • Private GPs in London - Same Day GP since 1998 - walkin-clinic.co.uk‎

Adwww.walkin-clinic.co.uk/Private-GP/City-Of-London‎020 3411 3809

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Barking and Dagenham Trades Council support Autumn meeting

I attended the Barking and Dagenham Trades Council meeting earlier this evening and am delighted to report they have decided to support an Autumn march from Queens Hospital to Redbridge Town Hall as part of our campaign to keep open King George A&E.

Next Save King George A&E March to be from Queens Hospital to Redbridge Town Hall

Below is Cllr Athwal's excellent letter to Mr Hunt seeking a meeting to say why King George A&E should stay open.

Redbridge is the first council to seek a meeting with Mr Hunt. It is important that other North East London Councils come on board as well. The more allies a campaign has, the better the prospects for success.

Last night, Redbridge Trades Council decided to support a march from Queens Hospital to Redbridge Town Hall for a rally this autumn as part of an effort to get Havering Council to write to Mr Hunt too.

I will be writing to local senior politicians for a date convenient for them and will report later with a date for the march and rally.