Lynne Featherstone

Local MP Lynne Featherstone is this week calling on local residents to come along to a public meeting on Thursday to hear directly from health care bosses on the future of the Whittington A&E.

The meeting, which is being held at Greig City Academy in Hornsey, N8 7NU on Thursday the 4 March from 8pm, will give local residents the chance to put questions directly to Rachel Tyndall, Chair of the North Central London Review Panel, and Richard Sumray, who is Chair of NHS Haringey.

Residents who want to attend should use the Hillfield Avenue entrance to the Hornsey school, and follow the signs.

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“Things have moved on since we first heard about the proposal to close the A&E. There are now seven draft options, four of which end 24 hour A&E at the Whittington.

“This is your chance to hear directly from the NHS bosses on these plans, but more importantly, this is your chance to make sure your voice is heard.

“Please come along, and bring friends and neighbours. The more of us are there to show our concern, to ask a question or just to listen and understand – the better. Together we can fight this.”

The Ham & High just organised a photo-op outside the Whittington in advance of the march on Saturday (Highbury & Islington corner at noon) so that they can give it advance publicity. Well – done Ham & High!

The key in all of this – is where the power and the decisions lie – and sadly - it isn’t with the people. If it was – we wouldn’t be in this postion to start with. We are at the mercy of high paid, managers and bureaucrats moving around services on paper – without any understanding of our wishes or our needs – nor any mandate from us.

As for the Labour Government – they say it’s a local matter. There is nowhere for us to hold the decision makers to account that has real teeth. Whatever they decide – they won’t lose their jobs and they don’t have to face an electorate.

If Liberal Democrats were in charge (and after the election we may be) we would put power back in the hands of the people. No longer would we be in this untenable and unacceptable and position – where we petition and beg for what we want to unaccountable quangos.

Everyone I talk to says the same thing: this is madness – but how do we stop it? We fight, we march, we meet and we protest – but in the end – if we the people had the power, if our health boards were elected and accountable as they will be under a LibDem administration – the Whittington would be perfectly safe in our hands!

Power to the people!

A protest song against the threats to the Whittington Hospital has been penned and launched. You can hear it here. Come sing it as we march on the 27th February from Highbury Fields to the Whittington.

(Also on YouTube here)

It is clear from the overwhelming response to the campaign and petition that local people want the Whittington A & E to remain and remain 24/7. In fact – most people can’t believe closure is even being proposed – as to anyone locally this is madness.

But the fight doesn’t stop at a petition. On the 4th March, I have arranged a public meeting, where local residents will get the chance to hear at first hand, what the hospital bosses have to say about the threat to the A&E. To represent the NHS, I have invited Rachel Tyndall, Chair of the North Central London (NCL) review panel, the body that has put forward the proposals to close the Whittington A&E, and Richard Sumray, who is chair of Haringey Primary Care Trust.

This will also be an opportunity for you to ask questions – directly to the powers that be. And I want you to be there. If we can show just how strong local feelings are about this threat, I think we might have a chance of stopping them. We now know from the latest document that there are seven draft ‘options’ for the future of the Whittington. Four out of the seven show an end to 24/7 A&E at the Whittington.

The meeting will take place as follows:

Thursday the 4th March from 8 pm, Greig City Academy, Hornsey, N8 7NU.

To access the assembly hall where the meeting will be held, please use the entrance from Hillfield Avenue and follow the signs. If you have any questions, just call my office on 020 8340 5459.

Lastly, I also wanted to mention that I am marching, with my fellow Liberal Democrat colleagues, in protest against the potential closure on Saturday the 27th February. The march, organised by Defend the Whittington coalition, will start at Highbury Fields at 12 noon and to the Whittington Hospital.

Do come along and show your support – if you want to find more details on the march, please go to: http://dwhc.org.uk/.

Thanks again for the support you have shown for our campaign, and please help spread the word about the threat to our A&E – together we can fight this!

To give local residents the chance to hear directly from hospital bosses about the threat to the Whittington’s A&E, Lynne Featherstone MP will be hosting a public meeting on the issue on Thursday 4 March, at Greig City Academy, High Street, Hornsey, N8 7NU:

The meeting, which will run from 8 pm, will give local residents the chance to question Rachel Tyndall, Chair of the North Central London Review Panel, the organisation that has put forward the suggestion to close the Whittington A&E, and Richard Sumray, who is Chair of NHS Haringey.

Lynne Featherstone will also lead a group of Liberal Democrats who are marching from Highbury Fields in Islington, to Whittington Hospital on Saturday 27 February from 12 noon, to protest against the threat to the Archway emergency department, and encourages local residents to come along and show their support for the campaign.

Lynne Featherstone MP comments:

“Local residents need to get a chance to put their concerns about the future of our A&E directly to the people in charge. And the hospital bosses need to hear how strongly we feel about these threats.

“So please come along both to the march on the 27th, and to the meeting on the 4th March. Join us and make your voice heard – together we can fight this!”

Note: The meeting will be in the school’s assembly hall and access to the hall is from Hillfield Avenue.

Managed to get to the meeting of the Defend the Whittington Coalition last night. The key issues being decided were the route of the march, the speakers, the publicity, banners, placards and so on. Credit to the organisers – as it is a lot of work to get this together.

We all need to take part in this protest. Given that the ‘options’ for the future of A&E at the Whittington currently (in their draft form) contain four options out of seven that end 24/7 A&E – we need to demonstrate just how much anger there is amongst local people.

So – demonstrate we will. I will post final times and locations for the various stages of the march and rally as soon as I have them.

All last week BBC London took a look at what is happening – or likely to happen – to our health services in London. Their survey includes, obviously, the threat to A&Es in London – and in particular the Whittington. You can see my interview -and the whole piece here in the A&E section.

Full credit to Rachel Tyndall (Chair of the North London Central Review Panel) for sending me the NCL Strategy Plan for our local health services. I had heard that these had been submitted to NHS London and asked for a copy – and it was given to me virtually immediately. I have circulated the document for information.

The content is of concern. First let me say – this is a long, technical document – in which the arguments are laid out for the configuration of health services across five boroughs and between five hospitals: Barnet, Royal Free, North Mids, UCLH and the Whittington. Ms Tyndall has said that a more accessible version for public consumption will be provided in due course.

In the appendix, are laid out, seven ‘scenarios’. This is where the fight to Save the Whittington A&E will come – if these are the ‘options’ that come for public consultation next autumn.

The seven ‘scenarios’  demonstrate different configurations between the five hospitals as to what services will be provided from each hospital. It is about a total provision – obviously – not just A&E. Suffice to say that four out of the seven ‘scenarios’ show an end to 24/7 A&E at the Whittington. Three show retention of 24/7 A&E.

Interestingly two of the ‘scenarios’ show a reduction to 16 hours A&E – however – from the minutes of the Board Meeting of the Council of Governors of the Whittington it is quite clear that the the 16 hour A&E is not a real option. The actual wording from the minutes of the meeting of the Council of Governors of the Whittington reads (and I quote directly):

Very importantly NCL and the Whittington have ruled out an option where the Whittington has an A&E with reduced opening time eg 16hours per day. This leaves options where either the full 24 hour A&E is retained or there is no A&E at all. The Whittington might then have an urgent care centre.

So – I don’t know why NCL have included two options showing a 16 hour A&E as clearly that has already been ruled out. This makes me wonder if options have been put in that are not really and truly under consideration but are there to make two of the options look better than they are – as they seem to offer some A&E rather than none. I will seek clarification on this seemingly conflicting evidence.

The greater problem for all of us fighting to save the Whittington A&E – is that as long as there are any ‘scenarios’ that don’t retain 24 hour A&E – we are in jeopardy. So – we need the public consultation next autumn to simply ask those who use the Whittington whether we want to retain the 24 A&E service or whether we would prefer the alternative range of provision at the polyclinic, GP extra hours, urgent care centre etc favoured by NCL and the Trusts.

Anything else opens the way to closure of A&E at the Whittington.

At this point – it is a battle to make sure whatever options finally come forward for consultation- that if local people want to retain a 24 hour A&E at the Whittington – it is retained!

No – this isn’t about the A&E – I wish they said yes to that too. No – this is my visit to the Whittington with members of the Haringey Phoenix Group who work with blind and visually impaired people in Haringey.

Have you ever thought about this – you get the results to your tests for cancer – and because it is in print – you can’t read it and have to ask a neighbour to help. Can you imagine how dreadful it must be to have to bring someone else into what is a private matter. Of course – you may be lucky and have a partner or friend who you are happy to see your most intimate correspondence – but there are times when this just isn’t appropriate. Or the letter might be about an appointment – and you don’t get to see it or know about it until too late. And quite frankly – it should be a basic right in a civilised society to receive medical information in a form that is accessible to those who are blind or visually impaired.

Well – actually it is a right – in legislation! The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and the Equality Duty of 2006 say this should be the case – but the actuality just isn’t happening. Partly this is because patients don’t ask – and partly because hospitals and GPs don’t offer or aren’t set up to deliver.

Hence my visit with the wonderful Haringey Phoenix Group. We met with Kate Slemeck and two other Whittington officials to discuss how we could arrive at a situation where asking wasn’t necessary because the IT system flagged up both that the patient was visually impaired but also what type of communication results, appointments – any communication – should be in. This could be anything from braille, to large print format (different point sizes for different degrees of impairment), audio tapes, etc.  Then automatically – all communication would be in that format. This is part of a campaign by the RNIB to convert the right in law – to the reality on the ground.

Three cheers for the Whittington – who embraced this and said they could see no reason why not – and were prepared to run a pilot. This would be a real breakthrough and the Whittington would be the first hospital to trial and hopefully become a beacon for provision of communication in appropriate format.

Of course – there’s a bit of a way to go – but they were welcoming, said that their IT system could flag this information up as we suggested. The next stage is to get GPs to ensure that this information – that the patient is visually impaired and identify the format required – so that it can be put onto the hospital system. And of course – it needs to be on the GP system – and all blind and visually impaired people need to make sure that the GP does this and so on.

So next step is to get Haringey PCT to write to all the GPs locally asking them to make sure that both on their own system and when they refere patients to the Whittington – it is made clear that this information has to be entered for flagging and so on.

I am assuming that the PCT will be delighted and willing to do so. I cannot imagine any reason why not – and this is the sort of small change that will make a huge difference.

Three cheers for the Whittington!

So – on Monday the draft ‘options’ for the future configuration of our local health services were passed up the chain to the Strategic Health Authority for London – NHS London. Well – that is the news that reaches me. No – we are not to know their thinking.

My understanding is that these are the first cut of reconfiguration options that NCL (North Central London Sector) have sent to SHA (Strategic Health Authority.

I feel we should have access to this document as soon as possible and I have sent an email to Rachel Tyndall (Chair of NCL) asking for a copy. Just in case this request is refused – I will submit a Freedom of Information request on Monday.

On the democratic accountability around all of this – why is it that local authorities have no representation at the decision making tables? It turns out we do – an officer form Enfield has been nominated to NCL. It is outrageous that a paid officer has been made the effective “place man” to represent  the 1.2 million people in the NCL area.

It seems that this was agreed following meetings between NCL and Leaders and CEOs of the boroughs – sold down the swanny in my view. My LibDem colleague, Dave Winskill’s suggestion is, at the very least, all lead members on adult services get together to discuss this and the implications for their services and demand representation.

After all, I have no doubt that any savings that these savage cuts make (if they succeed in their evil passage) will not be shared with the Boroughs who will surely bear some of the extra cost of community based care?