A leak in the west London Birthing pool.

This Evening Standard article highlights the cioncerns in West London over the wholesale closure of Accident and Emergency and Maternity departments.

The argument is that the creation of ‘super hospitals’ specialising in particular disciplines will result in better patient outcomes and economies of scale.

The problem is that A and E and maternity actually need to be local – it’s the complicated cases that need specialisms.

Any way things aren’t going well and they will get worse – lose either you’re a and E or your maternity department now – kiss your hospital goodbye in the next round of cuts;

 

Women giving birth in west London hospitals ‘face poor care and potential risks’

'Potential risks': a warning was issued about “inadequate” maternity care in

 

West London

Ross Lydall, Health Editor

Evening Standard

20 August 2014

A warning was issued today about “inadequate” maternity care in west London — ahead of services coming under further pressure with the axing of a busy unit.

Hospital inspectors said women giving birth at Northwick Park hospital, in Harrow, could not always summon help and the slow “pace of change” created “potential risks”. Caring was rated inadequate while the department, responsible for 5,600 births a year, “requires improvement” overall.

 

The Care Quality Commission’s report comes amid concerns at the wider impact of closing the maternity unit at Ealing hospital next summer. Most of its 2,800 births are expected to be split between Northwick Park and West Middlesex, in Hounslow, though emergency and complex cases will transfer to St Mary’s in Paddington.

 

Professor Sir Mike Richards, the CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, said senior staff had to be empowered to make changes in maternity and the A&E at Northwick Park, the biggest of three hospitals within North West London NHS trust.

Women told the CQC and reported in surveys that care fell below expectations.

The environment and equipment on paediatric wards also needed to be improved, inspectors said after their announced visit in May.

 

Sir Mike praised the trust’s “caring and compassionate” employees but said staff shortages made it difficult for them to meet individual needs. He added:

“Ongoing improvements to maternity services also need to be sustained, and further changes made at a much greater pace.”

 

The daytime-only A&E department at Central Middlesex hospital, in Harlesden, was rated “good” — weeks before it is due to be shut down. The leader of Ealing council today called on the trust to halt the closure on September 10.

 

Julian Bell said the report raised “serious questions” about the plan and said it would “push patients to a poorer service at Northwick Park”.

 

The CQC report ordered trust bosses to improve staffing levels in the A&E, surgery and critical care departments at Northwick Park and St Mark’s hospitals.

Overall, the trust “requires improvement” but its hyper-acute stroke unit was praised for providing a “gold-standard service”.

 

David McVittie, chief executive of the trust, said: “A significant amount of work is already under way to improve safety and effectiveness of care in our maternity unit. In addition, a new £21million A&E department will open at Northwick Park in the autumn.”

 

The Shaping A Healthier Future programme, which is centralising maternity and emergency care in “super-hospitals”, said: “We can give full assurance for women who are currently booked to have their baby at Ealing hospital to use the maternity unit with confidence.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

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