Forum Topic

An opportunity for a new A&E for Ealing?

Jeremy Hunt chose his words carefully saying that the Ealing Hosptial and the Charing Cross Hospital A&Es would remain open until alternatives were in place. We should start campaigning for a new purpose-built emergency centre in the W5 postcode that will be accessible to Ealing residents rather than waiting for whatever alternative arrangements central government might dump on us.Mr Maytree makes the same point on the getwestlondon.co.uk (Ealing Gazette) website -"Now that all the local luminaries, activists, and politicians have been photographed protesting at the proposed closure of bits of the sub-standard Ealing Hospital could we please get down to the business of what is really important and that is the provision of world-class emergency health care for Ealing itself."The wording of the announcements is interesting with the message that the facilities at Ealing and Charing Cross will continue to operate until alternative arrangements can be made. It strikes me that if the political ostriches could pull their heads out of the sand they would see an opportunity to influence these alternative arrangements. The closure of Ealing Hospital is not just to do with money, it is a dreadful place with an entrenched management and staff who are just not up to the job. The NHS wants to get rid of this problem and so what we should be doing is to start campaigning for a new accident and emergency unit for Ealing which is purpose-built to provide emergency medicine (trauma centre) rather than operating as a general hospital. I would prefer to see something close to a tube station and accessible to the residents of Ealing and Acton and not in the middle of nowhere like Ealing Southall hospital is."I could suggest the extremely poorly managed and semi-derelict Ascott Allotments site in South Ealing as a possibility for this. It is next door to South Ealing Tube station, two bus routes, and is close to the A4/M4 for emergency access, not to mention being accessible to people living in the W5, W3, W4, W13 post codes."

Anne Reddy ● 4534d5 Comments

And the NHS already own the land at Clayponds (which will close), not the ideal location but close and a new access road could be built. But let's not get common sense and joined up thinking get in the way of political ideology.

Nigel Brooks ● 4533d

An Ealing hospital that is actually in Ealing?  That's just crazy talk!

David Bourne ● 4533d

I agree with you Mr Brooks. this would be a hospital. However, in common with other specialist trauma centres it would ship its patients out to recover in other long-term facilities so there would be no need for long term geriatric care, or oncology (cancer) wards, or day surgery or out-patient facilities in many areas such as rehabilitation or physiotherapy. This used to be the approach until we started building giant hospitals that required tens of acres of wasteland in the middle of nowhere to accommodate them.The location that he suggests, the allotments in South Ealing actually makes sense especially if the tube line was built over and there was integrated access with South Ealing tube.

Anne Reddy ● 4533d

It is an interesting idea save for the fact that any trauma centre would also need access to the full range of surgical and specialist surgeons to 'deal' with whatever is presented to them.Patients would need access to beds, pre-discharge therapies, specialists in domiciliary care as example, pharmacists and the whole gamut of care required to return them to 'pre-trauma' wellness.I think that they call those places hospitals.

Nigel Brooks ● 4534d

A very interesting idea. Would our local politicians support it though?

Keith Slater ● 4534d