Council opposes Hospital Changes

Last night I moved, and Mel Collins seconded, a motion at the Borough Council meeting expressing serious concerns about the impacts of closures of Accident and Emergency at Charing Cross and Ealing hospitals  would have on the West Middlesex Hospital and on local communities.  Labour and UKIP Councillors supported our motion and the Tories abstained.

The proposed closure of Charing Cross hospital is a major issue raised by people in Chiswick when I meet them on the doorstep.   When it was proposed to close the A&E department last year  the community feared this would spell the end for the whole hospital.  The anti closure campaigns have been joined by leading clinicians, and the cross borough, cross-party Joint Health Scrutiny Committee. There are real fears about longer journey times for ambulances, patients admitted to a bed being cared for further from home, and the loss of clinical excellence.

What was originally a proposal to close the A&E  at Charing Cross, along with that of Ealing and Hammersmith hospital, now involves the complete demolition of Charing Cross, all 500 beds, and the building of an urgent care centre (walk in non "blue light") and a 60 bed GP centre on the site.

Few who use or work in hospital services would deny that there is a need for change.  And change can work - the reorganisation of acute stroke services in London  have transformed recovery rates from being the worst in the country to among the best. But those changes were properly funded and properly planned - a very different situation to that experienced in North West London now. 

Ironically one of the eight "fewer larger" hyper stroke units is at Charing Cross and would now move to St Mary's Paddington.

So; will the proposed cuts and changes be better for residents in Chiswick and the rest of Hounslow?
A year ago Hounslow's Cabinet agreed to support Option A - designating West Middlesex University Hospital  a ‘major hospital’ and Charing Cross  a local hospital.  But this was a qualified support based on little available data.  Firstly; we requested assurances from the NHS that West Middlesex Hospital will be able to cope with increased numbers of patients using its accident and emergency, maternity and other services.

and secondly we specifically said that no hospitals were to close under the proposals.  Yet the complete demolition of Charing Cross as we currently know it has been added since that Cabinet meeting - with the loss of not only A&E, but a whole host of specialist units that have saved the lives of thousands of local residents over the year.

  

 There is increasing clinical opposition to having fewer A&E units - the success data is not there, and there is concern that where Urgent Care Centres are not attached to an A&E, there are too  many serious ill patients unable to quickly transfer from one to the other.  

The cross borough, cross party, Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Health Committee

is very concerned about the changes.  In particular; the ability of Out of Hospital care to expand sufficiently quickly to reduce the demand on acute beds in the remaining major hospitals, the ability of the hospital and public transport system to adapt to the changes in patient travel, the impact on services to people arriving at hospital with mental health problems or disabilities. They are not assured that the finance is there, nor adequate measurable targets, nor adequate risk assessments

  I have twice heard the presentation by our local Clinical Commissioning Group about how they plan to reduce the expected pressure on West Middlesex's A&E and acute beds, by developing an extensive out-of-hospital service.    No-one can argue that it's in everyone's interests to get and keep frail elderly people, and people with chronic conditions, out of hospital. 

But what I have seen are nice plans with no targets, and no funding guaranteed. They are aspirational.  

Without committed funding, and clear targets they are little more than wishful thinking. 

These changes are being planned to be implemented within three years, at a time when A&Es are being swamped by rising numbers of frail elderly people, who in large part are victims of an underfunded social care system.  Last winter the West Mid saw more patients than ever - they coped without per-patient waiting times increasing - but they are at capacity. There are no accurate population projections built into the out-of-hospital plans and no adequate answers for those living near Charing Cross, as to the likely journey times they would need to factor in to get through West London's busy traffic.  

Jeremey Hunt must review these changes, for the sake of the future health of the people of north west London. 

Chiswick Independent Traders Celebrate with Street Fair

Devonshire Road in Chiswick was closed to traffic and a lawn laid down yesterday (Saturday).  The Devonshirte Road  fair was organised to celebrate and promote the independent businesses that this road, and much of Chiswick, is renowned for.  Despite appearance, many independent shops in Chiswick are struggling against rising rents, business rates and lower customer spend, so special events are a really good way to increase trade.  Mike Moran from Top Hat Dry Cleaners made these points to Chukka Umuna (Shadow Trade Secretary) when we met him in Chiswick a few months ago.

I got there in the morning and do hope they had a successful day . . .

My Campaign to be selected to Labour's Candidate in Brentford & Isleworth in 2015

Ruth2015Win is my Campaign Website - please do go there and see why many people are supporting me to be Labour's Candidate in 2015

Hounslow to hit New Affordable Homes Target this Administration, and next

With the growing housing crisis caused by a critical shortage of Council Housing, it's good to see that Hounslow Council will be able to deliver on the 2010 Pledge of 2500 new affordable homes in the borough.  What’s more, the Cabinet committed at the last Cabinet meeting  to plans that will deliver a further 3000 homes over the following five years.  At least 500 of the new homes will be Council-owned and the rest provided by Housing Associations.  Included in the total for the next five years  are 48 new sheltered housing units and 50 hostel units for homeless people.

This large increase in new Council housing has been made possible now that the Council has full control over the income it receives from its housing stock (The Housing Revenue Account) as well as having enhanced borrowing powers.  Introduced by the outgoing Labour Government, these powers are now coming on-stream - not a moment too soon to address the catastrophic shortage of decent quality affordable housing we have.

Boris sounds death knell to the West London Economy with Thames Airport idea

By proposing a new airport in the Thames east of London, Boris Johnson is saying that he has no interest in supporting the West London Economy, where around 100,000 jobs are dependent on Heathrow, and many business locate here to be accessible to international contacts. Heathrow may be an environmental challenge (to put it mildly - see previous posts) but it is a key driver of our local economy.

The debate around the future of Heathrow is more complex than "Expand or Close", and I hope the Davies Commission addresses these issues so that Heathrow is retained with 2 Runways, no night flights and runway alternation.  To do this Davies will have to address;

• incentivising aircraft to fly full 
• filling the unused capacity at regional airports - currently 40% unused 
• recognising that transfer passenger business (which brings little direct revenue to UK plc) will change as the new fleet of long-distance planes come on stream
• defining Heathrow's role - the majority of its passengers are leisure travellers - would some prefer to travel from their local airport?
• replacing short-haul flights with rail
• forecasting long-term demand should fossil fuel become scarce - meaning investing in a £multi-billion pipe-dream is just mad

Hounslow's residents clearly oppose expansion (72% of those surveyed) but 62% did not want a new hub built if it meant Heathrow would close.   Hounslow Council's will continue to campaign for a Better Not Bigger Heathrow.

Third Runway would kill historic opportunity to improve noise climate for Heathrow residents

A short Report  released today by HACAN claims that a third runway at Heathrow would kill off an historic opportunity to improve the noise climate for residents.  The report argues that the combination of the quieter aircraft that are coming on-stream and improved operational practices, such a steeper approaches, provide a real chance to reduce noise. But it says that chance would be lost if a new runway is built as the huge increase in the number of planes would cancel out any improvements to the noise climate.  A third runway would allow over 700,000 planes to use the airport each year, up from the current ceiling of 480,000.

The report comes out just a week before Heathrow Airport is expected to announce its favoured site for a third runway when it submits its evidence to the Airports Commission which has been set up by the Government to assess airport capacity in London and the South East (2).  The commission released its consultation on noise at the end of last week (3).

HACAN Chair John Stewart said, “There is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve the noise climate at Heathrow.  It would be snatched away if a third runway was built.”

The report highlights the fact that Heathrow is ‘in a noisy league of its own’ with 725,000 people affected by noise from the airport, that is, 28% of all people impacted by aircraft noise right across Europe.  The report also calls on the Government to introduce a more meaningful way of measuring noise.

Shadow Business Secretary Visits Independent Traders in Chiswick

It was good to meet Chuka Umunna in Chiswick this week.  He’s Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary and he takes a particular interest in the challenges facing small businesses.  Thursday was Retail Independent Day, and Chuka is leading calls to encourage consumers to shop with local independents .  Research shows that of every £1 spent locally between 50p and 70p recirculates back into the local economy. But many shopping areas, including Chiswick, are under pressure from shopping malls, big chains and internet competition. The National Campaign encourages the public to buy at least one thing from an independent shop on Independents' Day.

During his visit, we asked shoppers to sign a petition calling on the Council GLA and National Government to help maintain and protect the character of Chiswick as a historic High Road with a strong representation of independent shops and businesses.

We then visited several shops including Mortimer and Bennett in Turnham Green Terrace and Top Hat in Devonshire Road.   Chuka said "I know how strongly people in Chiswick feel about the great character of the local area. Shops like Chiswick Hardware and Mortimer & Bennett delicatessen, obviously bring great richness and variety". He said the Labour Party was determined to help small businesses and he was looking forward to a momentum building up ahead of the inaugural UK Small Business Saturday on December 7th.

Dan Mortimer, and Michael at Top Hat told me afterwards that Chuka was genuinely concerned about the challenges the independent shops in Chiswick face. Dan feels that the character of Turnham Green Terrace is changing as there are more and more estate agents, chains and charity shops coming in paying higher rents, and short stay parking is expensive. This then leads to the lower footfall that they are experiencing.

I feel that right now the biggest threat to retail shops in any town centre are changes of use to estate agents (in Chiswick’s case) or Betting Shops (in Hounslow Town Centre). The Council recently refused planning permission for a shop to become an estate agent in Turnham Green Terrace, which sent a positive signal to the retailers and I understand helped them in their rent negotiations with their landlords. However the Government's recent changes to planning law mean that permission isn't needed to change a shop into another commercial use. This could be the death knell for vibrant local streets like those in Chiswick. I urged Chuka to reverse this terrible policy brought in by Eric Pickles.

Parking is another bugbear of traders, and the traders we spoke to said that even 10 minutes free parking would make a big difference to their customers.