St Georges - Our new Critical Care Hospital??
The interview with NHS Chief Executive David Nicholson in today's national Guardian about the move to less Critical Care Hospitals as a result of "better healthcare closer to home" (where have we heard that phrase before!!) is well worth reading.
http://society.guardian.co.uk/
None of what he says is that new and has been the thinking of Royal Colleges and the NHS Executive for at least 4 years. Look at the former South West London Strategic Health Authorities documents from 2003 if you need further evidence. They never ever referred to a CCH in the Epsom and St Helier Trust area as I kept pointing out through the entire BHCH fiasco.
The national Guardian article demonstrates that the 1 Critical Care Hospital (CCH), 10 Local Care Hospital (LCH) BHCH proposal (see articles below) was really a pipedream and already out of date when it was proposed in 2004/05. That is why the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee should investigate whether it was a waste of money.
The only Critical Care Unit I think we would have got was a 10 bed unit attached to the Royal Marsden, similar to the one attached to their central London site. Indeed we may still get that at some stage in the next 5-10 years, but it won't be a full Critical Care Hospital!!
What BHCH succeeded in doing really well, was splitting political opinion across Surrey with Reigate and Surrey CC in favour of the Sutton site against Epsom and Ewell, thus making it easier to downgrade Epsom Hospital as Sutton Council was never going to have a wide enough strategic approach to stand up for the provision of services outside its area.
As I said years ago, the battle was never "Epsom v St Helier" as both were always under threat. The likelihood is with Epsom downgraded from next month, St Helier may well be downgraded itself within the next 3 to 5 years as St Georges develops as the main CCH for this area.
The St Helier Health Campus (as surely it will be called in due course) will remain an important health facility, but instead of pipedreams maybe we can have a more serious debate over the evolution of the services there through a more likely gradual rebuild in the coming years.
Instead of opportunistically sitting on the fence over the Sutton Hospital site, Sutton Council needs to tell its officers to get on with developing a strategy through its planning powers and influence on the PCT to defend the maximum level of services at St Helier in the coming years.
That is the only game in town, not pipedreams from the past!
http://society.guardian.co.uk/
None of what he says is that new and has been the thinking of Royal Colleges and the NHS Executive for at least 4 years. Look at the former South West London Strategic Health Authorities documents from 2003 if you need further evidence. They never ever referred to a CCH in the Epsom and St Helier Trust area as I kept pointing out through the entire BHCH fiasco.
The national Guardian article demonstrates that the 1 Critical Care Hospital (CCH), 10 Local Care Hospital (LCH) BHCH proposal (see articles below) was really a pipedream and already out of date when it was proposed in 2004/05. That is why the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee should investigate whether it was a waste of money.
The only Critical Care Unit I think we would have got was a 10 bed unit attached to the Royal Marsden, similar to the one attached to their central London site. Indeed we may still get that at some stage in the next 5-10 years, but it won't be a full Critical Care Hospital!!
What BHCH succeeded in doing really well, was splitting political opinion across Surrey with Reigate and Surrey CC in favour of the Sutton site against Epsom and Ewell, thus making it easier to downgrade Epsom Hospital as Sutton Council was never going to have a wide enough strategic approach to stand up for the provision of services outside its area.
As I said years ago, the battle was never "Epsom v St Helier" as both were always under threat. The likelihood is with Epsom downgraded from next month, St Helier may well be downgraded itself within the next 3 to 5 years as St Georges develops as the main CCH for this area.
The St Helier Health Campus (as surely it will be called in due course) will remain an important health facility, but instead of pipedreams maybe we can have a more serious debate over the evolution of the services there through a more likely gradual rebuild in the coming years.
Instead of opportunistically sitting on the fence over the Sutton Hospital site, Sutton Council needs to tell its officers to get on with developing a strategy through its planning powers and influence on the PCT to defend the maximum level of services at St Helier in the coming years.
That is the only game in town, not pipedreams from the past!
posted by Charlie Mansell at 5:05 pm
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