Andrew Dismore

Dear Editor,

As a member of the City Hall health committee, I believe it is important to add to the headlines that were covered from our recent report on London’s A and E services  for  the forthcoming winter, as we not only face a winter NHS crisis, but we have already had an unprecedented summer crisis too.

Barnet  and Chase Farm’s records show that for 45 out of the last 52 weeks, the A and E target for treatment  or admission time was missed. For North West London Hospitals, which includes Northwick Park where many residents from the west of  the borough go, the position is even worse, the target being missed for 50 out of 52 weeks.

It should also be remembered that the target was reduced by the Conservative led Government  from  the 98% target set and met by the Labour Government they inherited  , to just 95% by the Conservatives: and they are not even meeting  that, with just 91% in BCF and 84% in N West London of patients being dealt with in time.

It is true that the collation is making more funds avoidable in a late  effort to head of the inevitable winter crisis, but as Dame Ruth Carnall , the Mayor’s health advisor and former head of the NHS in London admitted to our  committee, this is no more than a “sticking plaster” solution- and sticking  plasters come off in  the wet, don’t they?

If the Conservatives hadn’t  wasted £3 billion on a time consuming top down reorganisation for the NHS ( which they promised not to do at the time of the last election), the NHS might not have been in such a mess now; and with such pressures on A and Es locally,  surely the decision to close Chase Farm’s A and E (another broken Conservative promise)  next month in the run up to the busiest time for the NHS emergency services must  be reconsidered.

 

yours sincerely,

Andrew Dismore

Labour London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden

Labour prospective parliamentary candidate for Hendon

 

79 the Burroughs

London

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