Forum Topic

EALING HOSPITAL A&E DEPARTMENT

My visit to Ealing Hospital Urgent Care Unit was a pleasant experience considering I ended up waiting for 3 hours to be seen and left with a leg in plaster. While speaking to the nurse initially I asked what the latest news was on Ealing’s A&E department closing. She said she wasn’t confident it would stay open, but very concerned as to where A&E patients would go as those hospitals such as Northwick Park are under so much strain as they currently stand, I can only imagine! Following my x-ray I had my consultation with a Doctor who I asked again about the A&E department closing, his response was “of course it is going to close!”I was taken back and had to ask why he was so confident in his response, he replied “If there were more white people in the area no one would think about closing the Ealing A&E but it’s not, if this was Kensington & Chelsea do you think they would even think about it?”I had to agree with what he said but I did add that the community of the Ealing borough was very strong and hopefully their support and petitions would prevail. The Doctor made a very good point I wanted to share - Unfortunately we live in a Western society where the Media and Celebrity statuses have a huge impact on impressions made, political decisions made in our big bad society. How can “we” as the Ealing community keep Ealing Hospital A&E OPEN?How can “we” the Ealing Community get a “celebrity” however shallow the idea is “we” the community need the Ealing Hospital A&E department to stay for our Children, our Neighbours, our Friends and Families a Celebrity might just help with “our fight?”

Sasha Brown ● 4417d7 Comments

PFI is crippling public services. Another labour lie of 'look how well we are doing but we won't tell you that we are mortgaging your children's future to pay for infrastructure that will be worn out before it is paid for'.Ealing does need a local blue light full A&E though Phil and a commitment to this from Jeremy Hunt would go a long way to calming fears.

Nigel Brooks ● 4415d

Sasha,I think the doctor who talked to you was very unprofessional and just plain nasty to make the comments they did.  The only person who has made any effort to help with Ealing and Charing Cross hospitals is the Secretary of State, Jeremy Hunt.  People may well feel that his promise of A&Es of a different shape and size may be disappointing but who else has offered anything?  The health service bureaucracy said they should close.  The independent reconfiguration panel said they should close.  The courts said no to a judicial review.  If you spend a few minutes looking into the policy background to Shaping a Healthier Future (SaHF) it becomes clear how venal Labour has been over the future of our hospitals.    Anyone with any knowledge of NHS finances knows that the SaHF programme is being driven by the Nicholson challenge – a programme put in place in 2009 by the then Labour Secretary of Health, Andrew Burnham.  It is designed to take out £20 billion in efficiencies and put it back into new services in order that the NHS can deal with new demand within a flat real terms budget.  It is quite easy to prove that this is Labour’s policy – they wrote it down on page 4:3 of their 2010 manifesto:This is the Nicholson Challenge in black and white in the Labour manifesto.  It easy is to show too that this is the driver for Shaping a Healthier Future.  Go to page 17 of the consultation document where it says:So Labour’s own policy has led directly to NHS NWL needing to find £1 billion of savings in North West London and hence this programme.  Now you might well say that the Conservatives didn’t have to keep Labour’s policy and that is a fair criticism.  I might add though that Labour isn’t proposing to find £20 billion to make Nicholson go away and that this sum is not far short of all council tax collected every year or all business rates collected every year.  It is a truly large sum of money.  What is clear though is that if Labour had been in power the overall financial settlement for the NHS would not have been any better, indeed it might have been worse as the Conservatives have made keeping overall NHS spending rising in real terms into a totemic promise.  SaHF would probably not have looked very different under a Labour government as it would have been the same set of managers working to the same set of constraints.  If it wasn’t hard enough for the health service managers designing a response to Nicholson they also had to contend with the fact that Labour's Alan Milburn signed off on a 35 PFI deal for the West Middlesex Hospital in 2001.  Against that fixed constraint Ealing Hospital for one was always going to lose out.  So Labour’s “Tories close your hospitals” line is pretty much upside down.  It is rare that a policy is so clearly and easily traceable from its effects on the ground back to the original decision.  The stage was set by Labour and the only person listening to our borough is Jeremy Hunt.

Phil Taylor ● 4415d

Nigel... over last few years I've had the missfortune to see more of Charing Cross than I'd ever care to wish to.I agree wholeheartedly with you and given choice Charing X would be where I'd head.The care they've shown my family members has been beyond top class and I to was impressed when attending myself (but I went private!!!).Charing X certainly one of the rare places where the S deserves to be in NHS

Colin Goodman ● 4415d

Colin, the facilities at Charing Cross are, from experience, exemplary. The 'service' is joined up with admission, procedure and after-care seamless.I honestly doubt that I could have experienced better care anywhere.As to Ealing, I have no issues at all with clinicians it simply the administration that falls apart time after time.Like you though, closure of any of these vital community facilities will see my voting allegiance switch faster than you can say 'short term idiots'.

Nigel Brooks ● 4417d

If you can't spot the racist connertations of the OP then I'd suggest you read it, read it again and keep reading it until you spot itPeople are very touchy over the modern day witchcraft that is racism but only one dimensional it seemsAs for the most important point - closure of Ealing Hospital A&E will spell the end of my blue vote forever. The same for all other Hospitals.I'm not saying the facilities or service are great in any as I think the complete opposite is the case. It's just the reasoning behind the changes don't add up and will result in deaths We'll see

Colin Goodman ● 4417d

Nigel, could you explain why you thought that this post was racist. And for all of Ealing's faults, my experiences in A&E have always been positive and having a son who plays football I have been there many a time. You are lucky that you have someone to drive you further out. Northwick Park, West Mid and Hillingdon are all very awkward to get to and quite far away.

Jaz Brown ● 4417d

"“If there were more white people in the area no one would think about closing the Ealing A&E but it’s not, if this was Kensington & Chelsea do you think they would even think about it?”"Probably a good thing that you didn't name the racist!I'm amazed that you were plastered there as the vast majority of their fracture cases are already referred to Northwick Park.I live five minutes from Ealing Hospital but have been driven, in severe pain, to Charing Cross rather than the endure the apology of an A&E at Ealing. I will therefore fight tooth and nail to retain the 'blue light' service at Charing Cross.

Nigel Brooks ● 4417d