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Hammersmith & Fulham Council is urging borough residents to join it in backing Charing Cross hospital in a major public consultation on the future of health care in London. Four new major trauma centres dealing with the most major emergencies and critical injuries are proposed for the capital by Healthcare for London, together with a new network of specialist stroke units, designed to speed up access to life-saving treatment.
Charing Cross, in Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, has been rejected as an option for the trauma centre. A lack of commitment to the site from Trust managers is given as one of the main reasons. Instead, St Mary’s Paddington or the Royal Free Hospital are proposed as the major trauma centre for west and north London.
However, Charing Cross is the main A&E centre not only for H&F but also Ealing and Hounslow, and 79.5 per cent, or 55,000 visits, to Charing Cross were from these three boroughs. This compares to seven per cent, or 7,600 visits, at St Mary’s from these boroughs.
The assessment of the merits of each site did not include how difficult it is to get to each hospital in an emergency, especially if there were a major incident at Heathrow.
Charing Cross has been proposed as a site for a specialist stroke unit, a move very much welcomed by local people. But a footnote in the consultation document hinted that this could be short-lived, with plans already being considered to move the stroke unit to St Mary’s in Paddington.
H&F Council is concerned that extra travel time for stroke patients in the borough to St Mary’s rather than Charing Cross would be detrimental for a condition for which rapid treatment is critical and has secured a promise that there will be a full consultation if this plan is pursued.
H&F Council leader Stephen Greenhalgh wrote to Stephen Smith, chief executive of Imperial NHS Trust which runs both hospitals, asking for reassurances on the future of Charing Cross. He asked why there was not more management commitment to Charing Cross and why the other two hospitals were given two years longer to meet the expected quality standards to qualify for consideration for the trauma centre.
Mr Smith replied that moving the stroke unit was a possibility. He said: “Should the (stroke unit) eventually be provided at St Mary’s, rather than Charing Cross, stroke patients would continue to be treated at Charing Cross after the hyper-acute phase.”
He said existing A&E services at Charing Cross would not be undermined and that investment in the future of the hospital continues. “The Trust is committed to provide comprehensive services to local people in each of our three main hospitals,” he added. “I am very proud of the services that Charing Cross hospital provides in terms of general trauma management. The consultation coincides with a period of significant investment, including a new state-of-the-art super surgery at Charing Cross to complement its A&E provision and has recently been fitted with a £1.5m PET/CT scanner and a £2.5m investment in specialist head and neck services.”
Residents can take part in the consultation online by visiting: www.healthcareforlondon.nhs.uk (opens new window).
