Whittington A&E under threat
A letter from NHS London sent to relevant hospital CEOs and Medical Directors has proposed 4 options for the future of Whittington Hospital - all of which would close or even reduce our emergency A & E services at the Whittington Hospital, Archway.
If you read the four options on the first letter sent out by Rachel Tyndall, CEO for North London Central NHS you can see how stark and clear the message is about the future of A & E at the Whittington. From the letter 4 possible models for North Central London were outlined:
a) Barnet and North Middlesex designated Major Acutes, Royal Free designated a major acute with specialist services, UCLH designated a specialist provider, Whittington designated a local hospital but with no emergency take and Chase Farm congruent with the BEH clinical strategy
b) Barnet and North Middlesex designated Major Acutes, UCLH designated a major acute with specialist services, Royal Free designated a specialist provider, Whittington designated a local hospital but with no emergency take and Chase Farm congruent with the BEH clinical strategy
c) designated a Major Acute, UCLH and Royal Free designated major acutes with specialist services, North designated a local hospital with an A&E and medical take, Whittington designated a local hospital but with no emergency take and Chase Farm congruent with the BEH clinical strategy
d) North Middlesex designated a Major Acute, UCLH and Royal Free designated major acutes with specialist services, Barnet designated a local hospital with an A&E and medical take, Whittington designated a local hospital but with no emergency take and Chase Farm congruent with the BEH clinical strategy
As you can see - all four options kill off A & E at the Whittington. The position put out by Rachel Tyndall in her letter was crystal clear - that the Whittington would loose its A&E, and therefore its ITU, and acute medical and surgical services.
Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green said: “This position now, rather abruptly, appears to have changed with a hasty and strange press statement put out on 13th November to the effect that the letter had “led to some confusion”. No it hadn’t - it was perfectly clear - no emergency service at the Whittington.”
Lynne added: “So - whilst they try and back-peddle to offset any mounting campaign to save our vital A & E at the Whittington - let me just make quite clear that I do not trust the Trust. They want to close our A &E. They don’t appear to understand that the 240 people a day who attend A & E are in great need and moreover could not make it to the Royal Free where the proposed services would have gone.”