Northwood & Pinner Hospital - Consultation

The consultation process on the future of the Northwood and Pinner Community Hospital continues apace. As can be seen, many Community Voice members have attended on the 22nd and yesterday and made their views known to officials of the PCT.

On the 22nd, Mr Antony Sumara CEO, was in attendance, together with his team from the PCT. Yesterday Professor Yi Mien Koh Deputy CEO, led the PCT team. Other noteables were Nick Hurd MP , Cllr. Richard Lewis and Cllr. Bishop.

The next, and the last date, is on Monday the 5th March. Please make every effort to be there between 10am and 1pm.

You may watch the DVD of our meeting on the 1st February; hopefully the PCT will be able to project the DVD on to a portable screen instead of a grey wall. You may then see yourself asking a question of the two CEOs, Antony Sumara and David McVittie.

Donald Edwards

Publicity event on 23rd March

People throughout Hillingdon use Hillingdon Hospital for NHS services. The Community Voice constantly monitors services at that hospital and always tries to represent the views of local people

Many organisations based north of the A40 are among the 53 member organisations in the Community Voice - but few organisations further south even know that we exist! Even those who have heard of us may know very little about our work at all levels of the NHS in Hillingdon, Harrow and South West Hertfordshire.

A typical Community Voice Meeting

So we are holding a publicity event on 23rd March, in the hope of forging links with people further south in Hillingdon. This will be from 11.30am to 2.30pm in Key House, High Street Yiewsley. We will be explaining what we are and what we do and, after a buffet lunch, there will be free discussion about local health services.

Key House, 106 High Street, Yiewsley

Some organisations have already been invited individually but we will also be pleased to welcome representatives from other organisations. However numbers on 23rd March are limited, so please get in touch as soon as possible if you want to come. Please contact our Secretary, Margaret Ross, for full details on Tel: 020 8868 8429.

For those who are interested to learn more about us, we also welcome visitors to our monthly meetings. Our transport scheme may be able to help those who would like to come but have transport difficulties.

Our next meeting is on Thursday 1st March at 7.45pm in the Post Graduate Centre Mount Vernon Hospital, when we will be considering the future of the Northwood and Pinner Hospital. Dr Shilpa Patel, from the Northwood Health Centre, will be our guest speaker.

A month later, on 1st April we hope to hear about future plans for Hillingdon Hospital.

Do get in touch if you would like to know more about us.


Joan

Northwood & Pinner Community Hospital consultation.

The Northwood and Pinner Community Hospital is holding "Open house" tonight, Thursday 22nd February, from 5pm t0 8pm. This is an opportunity for local people to express their views about the future of the hospital. The hospital will also be open in two days' time, on Saturday 24th February from 12 noon to 3pm, and on Monday week 5th March from 10am to 1pm.

Do go along on one of these dates to register your views and show you care about this important site. The Community Voice is calling for the consultation to have five major outcomes:

1. Continued provision in the local area of all services formerly provided in the hospital.

2. Provision locally, as soon as possible, of new, modern facilities for the care of elderly people.

3. New modern accommodation for the Northwood Health Centre somewhere on the site.

4. Use of the site to serve local people e.g for sheltered housing or as a park for blind people.

5. Protection of the site from future sale for commercial use.


At the hospital open days, the DVD recording of our 1st February meeting will be on show. Antony Sumara, Chief Executive of the PCT and David McVittie, Chief Executive of Hillingdon Hospital were guest speakers. Their vision for the future was for Mount Vernon to become a health village providing the Northwood & Pinner Community Hospital services in new accommodation.

What are your views? Do go along to one of these events and have your say.

Just one public meeting is being held during the public consultation. This will be on Wednesday 18th April, in the Winston Churchill Hall, Ruislip, from 7pm to 9pm. We hope to see a full hall, to show that local people care about this issue. Be there if you can!


Joan

Harrow PCT Meeting on 6th February 2007

A brisk and business-like meeting, on a very cold day! of the 7 members of the public present, 3 were from Community Voice.

The financial problems seem to be under control, although the settlement for next year has the lowest increase in the sector - what do politicians dislike about Harrow, as the same is true of the grant to Harrow Council? Among the topics discussed (apart from finance) were long term care of the elderly, which we were told was 'constantly under review'; the temporary suspension of the breast screening programme in North London for staff training; what to do about new therapies for age-related macular degeneration where the Board agreed to allow these very expensive treatments in special cases until there is further national guidance and approval from NICE; the 18 week target for 'referral to treatment'. Under AOB we were able to raise the future of Hillingdon's Minor Injuries Unit, which attracts quite large numbers of Harrow patients: Andrew Morgan assured us that he would be in touch with Antony Sumara about this, agreeing that it was clearly a valuable service, a point re-inforced by the chairman, Dr Gillian Schiller, who is herself a user of the MIU.

Two of the senior PCT staff are leaving, for posts in West Sussex and Hampshire.

James and Paul

A milestone meeting for Community Voice!

Our meeting on 1st February hit several new milestones. The press was present for the first time ever. The hall was full, with a record attendance. And we had two Chief Executives as our guest speakers - one is not unusual, but two is remarkable!

Antony Sumara, CEO of Hillingdon Primary Care Trust and David McVittie, CEO of Hillingdon Hospital came together to update us on the PCT's financial problems and to unveil a new vision for the Mount Vernon site. Both those issues form a backdrop to future options for Northwood & Pinner Community Hospital, on which public consultation started on the day of our meeting.

This public consultation runs for three months. The Northwood & Pinner Hospital will be open on three dates for visitors to ask questions and comment on options for its future. Later there will be a public meeting for open discussion. Key dates are:

Thurs. 22nd February: Open event at the hospital 5pm to 8pm
Sat. 24th February: Open event at the hospital 12 noon to 3pm
Mon. 5th March: Open event at the hospital 10am to 1pm
April ?? : Public meeting (date not yet announced)
Tues. 17th April : Written response forms to be returned

More details are available at: www.hillingdon.nhs.uk/consultNPCH.html

Consultation details and response forms are being mailed to local households and residents assocations over a wider area. We hope to learn more about the options for this hospital before jumping to conclusions. The open events will offer the chance to find out more.

Watch this space for more details, or join the debate at Community Voice meetings - on 1st March and 5th April at 7.45pm in the Post Graduate Centre at Mount Vernon. We welcome visitors and make no charge.

Joan

North West London Hospitals Trust Board, January 2007

A public meeting of the Board with hardly any of the public present!

Much formal business but at last the financial problems seems to be coming under control. The earlier problems with Maternity seem to have been solved, with new staff now in place, at several levels. A regular item of the Board's agenda is 'Infection Control' and it was interesting to hear that the new 'search and destroy' policy is working well. Viruses and bacteria do not keep to office hours, neither does the control team. Infection rates are coming down very satisfactorily.

A little fun with the new appointments system. The previous system of making the appointment at the clinic has been replaced by a central booking system, with letters offering the appointment sent out for the patient to accept or modify, with a subsequent confirming letter coming later. What could be done in 5 minutes now takes at least 2 weeks. Why? It seems to be a directive by NHS or Department of Health. Who dreams up such schemes?

Paul