Friday, December 29, 2006

Lorraine Clifton Leaves Epsom and St Helier

The news that Lorraine Clifton is leaving is no great surprise, however I will be sad to see her go as she was always willing to answer questions on the Epsom and St Helier Trust, even if she gave answers that some people did not like.

Better Health Care Closer to Home (BHCH) in its big bang of 1 CCH and 10 LCH's has been dead since the beginning of 2006. What we are now seeing is a much slower process in a number of directions. Much of this at community level is actually quite sensible and evolutionary, however there are still some uncertainties. A plausible current situation is:

1. A rapid downgrade of Epsom with maternity transferred to St Helier in 2007. Some of the site is likely to be used for intermediate care and elective treatment as well as other elderly care with possibly some housing on the site. I suspect the Denbies bid to privatise the site will fail.

2. A slower downgrade of St Helier with an expanded maternity unit offset by ward closures, and some urgent cases going off to St Georges

3. A last ditch attempt to develop a small CCH (30-50 patients a day) in the longer-term at the Royal Marsden site. We will know whether this is realistic when the London Review is announced in February. If this fails, Royal Marsden may simply purchase the Sutton General site for a larger specialism in the longer term.

4. Intermediate Care at Carshalton War Memorial site as Sutton Council gets rid of Bawtree, Ludlow and Franklin House, only keeping Oakleigh for the present.

5. Mental Health leaving the Sutton General site and being shoehorned into newly closed general wards at St Helier.

6. A Local Care Centre at Wallington, supplemented by new clinics at Robin Hood Lane, Middelton Circle and at Roundshaw.

Once we know the result of the February London Review we will know whether all the above is happening. Maybe Lorraine's leaving was sensibly timed in advance of the likely results of that.

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