the
medicalstudent October 2012
The voice of London’s Medical Students
Charing Cross A&E Faces Closure How to survive FY1 Page 5
Get ready to RAG Page 6
Why Medics aren't twats Page 9
Image by Chetan Khatri
Consultation period ends, students still in dark about future of Charing Cross Katherine Bettany This week saw the end of the consultation period for NHS North West London’s controversial proposal to downgrade four out of nine Imperial Trust hospitals. The proposal, Shaping a Healthier Future, released earlier this year, detailed the options for the future of Imperial Trust (the frontrunner involving the closure of Charing Cross A&E, redirecting patients to the nearby Chelsea and Westminster, which would remain a ‘major’ hospital.) The plan has met with much opposition from both Hammersmith and Fulham Town Council, which recently commissioned the Rideout report, as well as from the local community. Imperial College School of Medicine (ICSM), has been notably ab-
sent from proceedings, with the medical school yet to be consulted by the Trust. Under the new proposal, if accepted, Charing Cross will be downgraded from a ‘major’ hosptial to a ‘local’ hospital. The Trust remains vague about the precise meaning of the downgrade, however it is understood that the A&E and specialist wards would go. At a meeting with Marcus Ginn, Cabinet Member for Community Care and Health, suspicions were raised about the true intentions behind the move to downgrade. According to Ginn, Charing Cross has been seen as the “poor cousin” of the Trust, and is a victim of “strategic underinvestment”. Despite Trust claims that the plans would serve to enhance patient care,
financial reasons being only secondary, speculations were made that it is only a matter of time before Charing Cross is divided up and sold, in order to reap a ‘payday’ for the financially vulnerable Trust. According to Sir Christopher Edwards, Chairman of Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, Imperial has no appetite to run more than three hosptials, and cannot afford to do so. Greg Hands, MP for Chelsea and Fulham summarised: ‘the whole process is in danger of being driven by land values and the Trust’s ambitions instead of the best care for patients across West London’. Now that the official consultation period is over, the proposal is turned over to a Scrutiny Commitee, made up
of the North West London boroughs, who will then report to the Secretary of State. However, there is little doubt about the outcome - indeed Chelsea and Westminster, alleges Ginn, has already begun ‘measuring up the wallpaper and curtains’ in order to absorb the extra patient traffic once Charing Cross A&E is closed. In the official document detailing the council’s response, key flaws were identified. “The Council considers that there are several key flaws in the proposals. Broadly, these can be categorised as fundamental problems with the consultation process and methodology, failure to take account of current relative clinical outcomes, and a lack of due (cont’d on page 2)
Superhumans? Page 10
St Georges' epic row Page 15