Charing Cross rejected for trauma centre
by Hammersmith and Fulham Press Office
12/12/2008
Injured residents face long trips to hospital.
Charing Cross Hospital has been rejected as one of London’s major trauma centres for the most seriously injured.
The blow means residents in the west of London who have major injuries will face a lengthy trip across London.
Healthcare for London, the agency reorganising London’s hospitals, has concluded that Charing Cross does not meet its criteria to become a specialist trauma centre. Instead it has chosen two hospitals in south London (St George’s and Kings College hospitals) and one in east London (Royal London).
The news that the west of London will have no centre for victims of major accidents and injuries, while south London has two, has been greeted with shock and dismay by Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
H&F Council Leader, Stephen Greenhalgh, warns that this could mean a major downgrade for Charing Cross Hospital as major specialist services such as neurosciences and neurosurgery could now be moved from the site:
“Charing Cross Hospital is a first class facility and we want to keep it open with its full range of services. Over the years, many departments have already been moved like renal, plastic surgery, transplantation surgery, obstetrics, gynaecology and others.
“A further downgrade of Charing Cross would be a disaster, not only for the residents of Hammersmith & Fulham, but also for the whole of west London. Charing Cross is not just a local hospital. It is the largest and busiest hospital in the west of London. Around 65,000 accident and emergency (A&E) attendances and 12,000 emergency admissions take place at the Charing Cross site.
“Charing Cross is already the de facto major trauma centre for the west of London. If more specialist services are moved to less accessible locations, the west of London will be less able to deal with the major injuries following a disaster at Heathrow or 7/7 style terrorist attacks. This is because Charing Cross Hospital has the best located A&E department in West London with many of the wide range of back-up specialist services required for a trauma centre.”
Healthcare for London says the proposal aims to give Londoners better access to life-saving treatment if they suffer a serious injury.
Spokeswoman Sarah Prestwood for Healthcare for London, told h&fnews; “Two-thirds of London patients taken to a local hospital end up being transferred elsewhere to receive suitable care, while international studies show up to 40 per cent of trauma deaths are avoidable if the patient is delivered directly to expert care.”
However, she refused to comment on how longer journey times resulting from Charing Cross being downgraded would affect the residents of west London.
Consultant Andrew Hobart, who chairs the British Medical Association's emergency medicine sub-committee, said: "There are parts of north-west and north central London that are unlikely to be within 40 minutes of one of the centres, even in a blue-light ambulance.
"There is some anxiety about having only three. What happens if one is the site of a major incident and is out of action? Only having three makes us pretty vulnerable."
However, Mr Hobart said it would be better to travel for up to an hour to a proper major trauma centre than to a local hospital that did not have the correct facilities.
Healthcare for London says no final decision has been made and a public consultation will be launched early next year.
