Thanks to those who joined us.

It’s was great to be out on the streets again

We had around 30 people supporting our event and took lots of photos to send to the organisers and local media. As always we had a good old shout too – “Take our NHS out your Trade Deal!!” Lots of hoot & toots from passing traffic too, so all in all a good day!

The last few months have certainly been ones of highs and lows.  Definitely one of the highs have been thousands of nurses and other NHS staff across the country protesting for a well-deserved 15% pay rise.  

Unfortunately the lows must include the shambles that is our so-called ‘NHS Test & Trace’ system, which is so vital to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and protect us all.  

We have been continuing to press for services to be fully restored at Ealing Hospital along with our 3 local MPs and recently were invited to discuss our concerns with the LNWH Trust who manage the Hospital. 

We have a really good fun Quiz to test your knowledge about the test & trace system so do have a go 

You can also read here about big changes to the way we access A&Es in London. 

Please take the time to sign the important petitions on Track & Trace, protecting the NHS from Trade Deals and for an Independent Inquiry on the handling of Covid-19 – Thanks

What future for Ealing Hospital? 

At the end of last month we met with London North West NHS Trust Chief Executive Chris Bown, Deputy Chief Executive Simon Crawford and Chief Medical Officer Martin Kuper to discuss our concerns about the future of the Hospital and be updated on their plans.  

We were already aware that some services had been restored, such as daytime emergency general surgery, daytime Trauma & Orthopaedic surgery on Monday, Wednesday & Friday (for patients able to go home from A&E) diagnostics such as Endoscopy and Breast imaging and that the number of critical care beds had been increased.

Chris Bown (Chief Executive) spent some time telling us about the big capital investment (over £2 million) they were making in Ealing Hospital in the Intensive Care Unit (critical care beds), Endoscopy, new MRI scans and more. This is of course very welcome. 

However, we were disappointed that there is still no overall Plan for the future of Ealing Hospital and no immediate prospect of night-time emergency surgery or a full Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgery service being reinstated. So for now ambulances will continue to be diverted to Northwick 

Park for Trauma & Orthopaedic cases, and night-time surgery will be run on an on-call system from Northwick Park.

It does rather seem that Ealing’s role is currently to provide an A&E service, help to cope with the pressures of Covid-19 and help the Trust reduce its considerable backlog in diagnostics and elective care (so they plan to use EH theatre capacity fully) which of course needs to be done.  

The problem is that there is no assessment of our local health needs and health inequalities so difficulties in accessing services because of disability, poverty, language difficulty, age etc are simply not being addressed. 

Instead, everything is now being decided at the regional level by a new body called the North West London Integrated Care System (ICS).  It’s based in Marylebone and led by Lesley Watts from Chelsea & Westminster NHS Trust.

Democracy & accountability are non-existent for this ICS. Decisions are secret and there is no public scrutiny or open meetings. This is clearly an issue for campaigners across North West London.

We will continue to monitor the situation at Ealing Hospital and work with our local MPs to press for services to be returned, when it is safe to do so.  

The Latest NHS Re-organisation is a Single CCG for North West London (NWL):

Currently there are 8 Borough based Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in North West London who each commission health services for the population in their Boroughs, such as Ealing.  North West London NHS is keen to get rid of them by merging them in to a single CCG, which is national NHS policy. 

Campaigners and Councils in NWL oppose the merger as it removes what little democracy and accountability currently exists at the local level and we fear that local health needs are less likely to be addressed if all decisions are taken at the regional level. 

The latest version of the merger plans came out in August and like the previous version in 2019 has minimal local authority representation and public accountability. 

Ealing Save Our NHS and other NWL campaigners were asked to comment.  You can read our comments here

Accessing A&E – a new booking system for London!

Some of you may have already heard that a new A&E booking system via NHS 111 is being introduced across London over the next 2 months. It’s called ‘Talk before you Walk’ 

In a recent letter, seen by ESON, Lesley Watts, CEO of the NWL Integrated Care System sets out the plans for London.  

The new booking system is apparently to be used for ‘urgent but not serious or life-threatening medical conditions’, supposedly to reduce waiting times and crowds in A&E and help reduce Covid transmission. 

They say they will be spending up to £6 million to recruit extra staff for London 111 including 166 doctors, nurses, paramedics & pharmacists to cope with extra demand and winter pressure. Currently only two thirds of callers to 111 get to speak to clinicians – so a third don’t!  If they aren’t able to recruit these extra staff then the claim that people will get to speak to a clinician more quickly and have an urgent face to face assessment or treatment arranged just won’t happen with worrying consequences. 

Patients can still go directly to A&E Departments but it’s not clear how this new booking system  links in with 999 calls, which often seem to get redirected to 111 as well.

Chelsea & Westminster were in the first Wave on 30th September and will be followed by Ealing, Northwick Park and West Middlesex at the end of October, then Charing Cross, St Marys, and Hillingdon by the end of November. 

Ealing Save Our NHS will be submitting a range of questions to clarify how this and asking for a meeting.

You can read the letter from NWL NHS here

The “fiendishly difficult but quite informative” test and trace quiz

With confirmed Covid-19 cases on the up, an effective track and trace system is absolutely vital. However there is little information on the organisations running the system, especially the private companies who have been handed huge contract worth millions without any competition or accountability. 

The excellent Caroline Molloy, Editor of ‘Open Democracy’ has produced this Quiz. It’s a great way to test your knowledge of the English Test & Trace system to see what you know and learn some things that you didn’t – ENJOY! Link here

Richard Horton speaks about ‘The Covid-19 Catastrophe’:

Richard Horton (editor of The Lancet) was the keynote speaker at the KONP AGM. Many people have spoken and written on the Government’s mishandling of Covid-19, but none that we have heard have done so with such passion and humanity as Horton. He was absolutely brilliant, uplifting and worrying all at the same time!   

The good news is that you can listen to him via the link on the KONP website and read the review of his latest book.

PLEASE HELP AND SIGN THESE PETITIONS:

‘We Own it’ – Tell the House of Lords to protect the NHS from Trade Deals

We Own it are asking us to support their campaign to get the House of Lords to pass the NHS protection amendment to the Trade Bill, which has entered a critical stage. Last week, Lords and Baronesses debated the amendment at the Committee Stage, and it will move to the Report Stage in two weeks, where it will be voted on. 

They say if we are going to win in the Lords, the next two weeks are absolutely critical.

In order to continue to make our voices heard in advance of that vote, We Own it are writing to the leaders of the four main groupings in the Lords asking them to whip their benches to vote for the NHS amendment and they want us to become a signatory to our letter. The more people that sign on to the letter, the more impactful it will be.

Please sign the letter and share –

Covid–19 Bereaved Families Call for an Independent Inquiry:

At the recent Keep Our NHS Public AGM, Trish Barnett from Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice spoke about their fight to get justice for their loved ones. Their campaign aims to seek accountability for the mistakes that have been made and to stop those same mistakes being made again, causing more families to needlessly suffer the overwhelming grief that have suffered. They want an immediate judge-led public inquiry to look at key elements of the government’s approach and inform it going forward.

You can support them by signing and circulating their petition and donating to their Crowd Fund appeal

PLEASE SIGN & SHARE –

Remove Test & Trace from the Private Sector:

As we all know the Government’s failing ‘NHS Test & Trace’ system is not run by the NHS at all,  but by a range of private companies with little experience of public health such as Serco & accountancy firm Deloitte, recently awarded the fantastical ‘Operation Moonshot’ testing contract. Along with the health experts, we believe what is needed to ensure a successful testing system is a partnership between local authorities and public health, primary care and NHS labs. 

Dr Louise Irvine (KONP & Save Lewisham Hospital) has started this petition, now at 165,000!

 PLEASE SIGN & SHARE –

‘We Own It Petition’ – Scrap Serco Now

Despite its contract tracers failing to reach thousands of people and the availability of tests being abysmal Serco are set to get their contracts renewed.

Serco currently operate 30% of testing centres, they have sizeable contracts to run contact testing call centres (US firm SITEL being the other main provider). They also run a DWP helpline fo people shielding from the virus and help run the Governments business help line.

No wonder Serco’s CEO said he hopes it will “cement the position of the private sector” in our NHS”. No doubt at the same time as singing “We’re in the money” 

Well done to We Own It and others for keeping up the call to get them out.

Please sign the petition and circulate.

Thanks to all who joined us on Saturday – it was brilliant to be out on the streets again doing what we do best standing up for our NHS and local hospital.

Despite all the restrictions we were delighted that 40 – 50 people turned out to send a powerful messages to NHS bosses – Hands Off Our Hospital!

We had our customary Hats, banners and placards a plenty – thanks to Arthur and Oliver for these.

Of course we had to have the odd song or two too “Do we love our NHS – yes we do – do we love Ealing Hospital – yes we do” ….

We had a great spread of speakers and support including Rupa Huq MP, Onkar Sahota (GLA) local councillors and community groups such as Southall Black Sisters, St Johns Church and Southall Community Alliance. Local MP,  Virendra Sharma also sent a message of support. A good turn out from campaigners and lots of our lovely supporters too!

Here are a few pictures –

All together for Ealing & Our NHS!

New Story: ‘Pro-NHS protestors claim local service Being Betrayed’

It is great to get some news coverage of Saturday’s event and what is happening to our hospital. The ESON case comes out rather well and we stand by our quote below until we see a concrete commitment to return our services and a proper plan for Ealing Hospital. 

“Covid-19 is providing cover for the re-introduction of plans to downgrade Ealing Hospital from a great District General Hospital that supports the community, to something less – a series of clinics with an adult-only A&E without 24-hour emergency surgery. We have a high number of elderly and BAME local residents who are at risk and need support.” 

Reading the Hospitals Trust response it is hard to believe many people would be re-assured by their promises of reviews and assessments but no real concrete commitments to return services or to the Hospital. 

You can read the story here, which will soon be available on the ‘My London’ website

Importance of Ealing Hospital A&E more than ever as Hillingdon A&E closes:

Around 70 staff at Hillingdon Hospital are now isolating, some of whom have tested positive, following a coronavirus outbreak on Friday 3rd July. As a result the A&E and emergency admissions have been halted and ambulances diverted to nearby emergency departments, which means Ealing and Northwick Park Hospitals.

All we can say is it’s proving yet again how important it was to stop the closure of our A&E!! Glad it was there to help the people of Hillingdon.

Keep Our NHS groups do the NHS 72nd proud

The NHS 72nd birthday was marked up and down the country by campaigners from Keep Our NHS Public like Ealing Save Our NHS.  Taking place during the Covid19 pandemic meant that many demonstrations took a serious tone. 

On Friday 3rd July, Sixty-five lanterns were carried by protestors from St Thomas’ Hospital in South East London, over Westminster Bridge to Downing Street. Keep Our NHS Public joined with campaigners from The People’s Assembly Against Austerity, We Own It and Health Campaigns Together for the evening protest, with each lantern representing one thousand people who have died in the UK during this pandemic due to the Government’s botched response.

On the Sunday the excellent online NHS Birthday Rally took place and was watched by over 31,000 people.  Ex-Childrens Poet Laureate Michael Rosen, who has only just recovered from coronavirus, opens the rally with his excellent poem – ‘These are the Hands’. 

You can still watch it here-

Our next Campaign Meeting – Tuesday 21st July

You are very welcome to join our online meeting at 7.30pm. We will be discussing the changes and concerns that have been made to GP services as a result of coronavirus, as well as the latest news on our Hospital & NHS.  Please contact me for more details.

We are 100

This is the 100th issue of this newsletter. The first issue was published in May 2013. In that issue we looked at the changing roles of hospitals. We anticipated the 2012 NHS North West London (NWL’s) plans to close the A&E unit at Ealing Hospital. That never happened and we thought the matter was resolved in March 2019 when the Department of Health & Social Care withdrew its support for NHS NWL’s ‘Shaping a Healthier Future’ plans. How wrong we were. Ealing Hospital recently supported the upgrading of Northwick Park Hospital and the downgrading of Ealing Hospital as part of NHS NWL’s response to Covid-19. Rumours are rife that now the pandemic is starting to wane, the Ealing Hospital downgrade will not be reversed.

We also nervously welcomed the arrival of the Ealing Clinical Commissioning Group (ECCG), a product of the 2012 Health & Social Care Act. ECCG seems to be currently falling apart even though its formal closure date is way off on 31 March 2021. Another new kid on the block in May 2013 was the NHS 111 telephone advice service which replaced the NHS Direct telephone advice service. These days anecdotal evidence suggests that the advice received on 111 ranges from brilliant to hopeless.

In August 2019 we issued the eighth version of our NHS NWL Glossary. Along with this birthday issue is version nine of this lexicon of 236 terms, acronyms and jargon.

The Board Which Runs Ealing Hospital Met in Private on 27 May 2020

On 27 May 2020 the Board of London North West University Health NHS Trust (LNWH) met in private. A video recording of the ’Public Session’ of the meeting was placed in the public domain on 1 June 2020. Why the public were excluded from watching and asking questions at the meeting is beyond me. The meeting lasted 80 minutes and some of the highlights/lowlights were:

5 LNWH Staff Members Have Died of Covid-19 – 4 women and 1 man. 3 white and 2 Asian. The LNWH charity donated £8,000 to each of the families. No details about Ealing Hospital staff.

Sickness and Self-Isolation of LNWH Staff Peaked at 1,460 – Current (27 May 2020) level is 433. (Total LNWH staff is 8,316). No details about Ealing Hospital staff.

Staff Absenteeism Peaked at 22.1% in April 2020 – It’s currently at 7.5%. Target is 4%. No details about Ealing Hospital staff.

Non-Covid-19 Backlog Includes 2,500 Ultrasound Scans – again no Ealing Hospital data

ICU Busy Today (27 May 2020) with 37 Patients – presumably this is at Northwick Park Hospital

Role Changes for Junior Doctors Has Been an Issue – (300 doctors re-deployed because of Covid-19). Weekly Junior Doctor Forums and trying to maintain training as mitigations 

35 Infection Control Serious Incidents – PPE related

Key Role of Clinical Psychologists – the two regional mental health Trusts providing ongoing support

Currently LNWH has £84 Million in the Bank

LNWH has Covid-19 Tested 2,000+ Staff and Family 18+ – More Than Any Other Trust

The best presentations – crisp, clear, easy to hear were from CFO Jonathan Reid, Chief Nurse Lisa Knight and Director of HR and OD Claire Gore.

The most inarticulate presenters were Chair Sir Amyas Morse, Deputy Chief Executive Simon Crawford and Non-Exec Dr Vineta Bhalla. The Chair failed to introduce himself at the beginning of the meeting, mumbled, appeared slow moving and added no content to the proceedings. However the meeting was well run. The Non-Execs asked good questions. The questions from the public which had been submitted to the Board prior to the meeting were not answered at the meeting. In fact the questions were not even asked at the meeting – except for one from a Councillor. The PR guy said that this was the only question that had been submitted. This was incorrect as I and at least one other had submitted questions and we’d both had acknowledgements of receipt from the Trust!  As at 15 June 2020 these questions from the public have still not been answered.

The IT support and training (and adequate equipment at home) seems to be sadly lacking in virtual meetings in the public sector such as this one.

For papers and to view the recording of the ‘public’ part of the meeting:

www.lnwh.nhs.uk/papers

Ealing CCG Finally Makes a Public Statement About its Covid-19 Response

Informally we have discovered that ECCG staff have been redeployed and worked/are working  very hard as part of the Covid-19 response in Ealing over the last three months. But it’s only in ECCG documents released into the public domain on 10 June 2020 have we gained a small, formal glimpse of what ECCG staff have been doing.   

There are still no details on Covid-19 deaths at Ealing Hospital. As of 1 June 2020 there have been 1,511 Covid-19 deaths in the nine ‘main’ NHS NWL hospitals. Apparently there have been 55 Covid-19 driven service changes. Only one of these seemingly involved Ealing Hospital – the suspension of overnight surgery at Ealing Hospital. This really is being economical with the truth about the Covid-19 driven changes at Ealing Hospital. Ealing Save Our NHS has written to NHS NWL commissioning supremo Jo Ohlsen about this shoddy failure of disclosure. The actual changes at the hospital also includes all Trauma and Orthopaedic surgery being diverted to Northwick Park Hospital, the transfer of the Breast Clinic, and the transfer of a wide range of critical care equipment and most ICU Beds. Add to this the closure of Ealing’s only Acute Adult Mental Health Wards of Hope and Horizon  on the site and the Ealing Hospital Covid-19  downgrade is extremely significant and if not to be reversed very worrying.

Covid-19 testing in the car park behind Mattock Lane Community Health Centre in West Ealing has been confirmed. Local residents remain baffled as to what was/is occurring at this location as its official designation is ‘Local Primary Care Escalation Hub’. The staff running this test centre are employed at Ealing’s only NHS Trust – the West London NHS Trust (WLHT) in Southall. Covid-19 testing for NHS staff is now also taking place in Mattock Lane. ECCG staff worked with WLHT staff at Ealing Hospital on patient discharge. WLHT staff contacted 2,000 Ealing patients to discuss their healthcare needs.

Completely unannounced the Army turned up in the Gurnell Leisure Centre (closed) car park in West Ealing on 13 June 2020 offering Covid-19 testing. Did ECCG commission this? Casually dressed people (with no id) who were bossing motorists around in the car park said they were employed by Ealing Council. (Nothing about this in Councillor Bell’s 12 June 2020  Covid-19 newsletter or in the 130,000 copies of the latest Ealing Council ‘COVID-19 SPECIAL:  Around Ealing’).

McKinsey & Co Partner Ms Penny Dash To Become NHS NWL ICS Chair on 1 July 2020

An odd date to start one wonders as the NHS North West London Integrated Care System (ICS) only goes ‘live’ on 1 April 2021. And unless new Government legislation come in before then the ICS will be a non-statutory body. The statutory body, of sorts, that will exist on 1 April 2020 will be the new  NHS NWL CCG. Local commissioning for 2.5 million NHS NWL patients – quite some trick that one.

An NHS NWL ICS paper published on 10 June 2020 lists an NHS NWL ICS work programme. What is striking about the programme is there’s no any reference at all to any planned work on social care or healthcare and social care integration. 

Research Reveals Covid-19 Largely Arrived in the UK from Spain (34%), France (29%) and Italy (14%)

The Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium has announced its findings. Only 0.1% of the original Covid-19 cases originated directly from China. The virus arrived on at least 1,336 occasions and the rate of infection peaked around 15 March 2020.

More at:

www.cogconsortium.uk

£1.7 Billion Covid-19 Contracts Handed to Private Sector Largely With No Competitive Bidding

The response to the pandemic has seemingly provided ample opportunities for the Government to shower private companies with healthcare contracts to the value of £1.7 billion. Of the 385 contracts entered into, 92% have been commissioned by central Government. Local Government commissioned 5%  and the NHS just 3%. So much for the much vaunted local healthcare NHS CCG commissioning embedded in the presumably still applicable 2012 Health & Social Care Act. The emergency has opened up the doors to commissioning without competitive tendering.

This data comes from Tussell, a recognised authoritative source on what the Government is purchasing. Tussell (www.tussell.com) has been releasing data monthly on Covid-19 Government purchasing.  

Some of the awards are eye watering in scale compared to the size of the supplier. For example, Pestfix of Littlehampton in West Sussex was recently awarded a £108 million contract for PPE products. Pestfix is a family firm of just 16 employees with net assets of £18,000.

The Department of Health and Social Care has awarded 44 contracts worth £585 million. £33 million has been spent on consultancy support. PwC has won seven contracts worth £10 million. The biotech firm Life Technologies Ltd has four contracts worth £68 million. The cost of testing contracts stands at £421 million.

None of the published data by Tussell included any details of the cost of creating the Nightingale hospitals or the costs involved in the human contact tracing programme. However on 10 June 2020 ‘Health Service Journal’ revealed that the cost of setting up and running the Nightingale temporary hospitals has cost over £200 million.

NHS NWL Abandons Its ‘Health Help Now’ App  

Launched by press release in August 2018, the NHS North West London (NWL) home grown ‘Health Help Now’ Smartphone App promised to digitally deliver symptom checking, diabetes support, health news and advice. On 5 June 2020 the NHS NWL Collaboration of Clinical Commissioning Group’s Informatics Directorate wrote to ‘Colleagues’ informing them that the App would be ’decommissioned’ at the end of June 2020. It seems that just 4% of the 2.5 million registered patients in NHS NWL have actually used the App. Other reasons for its failure include lack of clinical oversight and financial unsustainability. No NHS NWL press release about this has been issued and details of the cash spent on it has not be revealed. 

ECCG Excludes the Public From its Governing Body Meeting

The NHS Ealing Clinical Commissioning Group (ECG), with just over nine more months of life left in it, is planning to meet virtually on 17 June 2020. It last met in public on 22 January 2020 some 20 weeks ago. However the public will be excluded from this virtual meeting. Just what has the ECCG got to hide? Still to be fair exactly the same approach has been adopted with NHS WLHT and NHS LNWH Board Meetings. It seems that a feature of pandemics in north west London is the loss of real time public scrutiny of NHS statutory institutions.

ECCG’s web site is a bit of a mess. It tells all and sundry that its 25 March 2020 Governing Body meeting was cancelled. In another part of the web site, the Minutes of the 25 March 2020 Governing Body meeting are published, with no attendee list.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that our ‘local‘ NHS hospital Trust  (London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust – LNWH) wants to anonymise its four hospitals and treat them as one ‘virtual’ hospital. In his latest progress report the LNWH Interim Chief Executive never mentioned the name of Ealing Hospital once. The major facility closures and movement of facilities out of Ealing Hospital in response to Covid-19 are allegedly not going to be reversed. Staff morale at the hospital appears to be low. I’ve heard this from multiple sources.

In September 2019 the North West London Collaboration of CCGs stated that there were 441,683 patients registered at Ealing’s 75 GP surgeries. The scale of residential development in Ealing since 2010 and in the planning pipeline is enormous. ‘Ealing Matters’ – the network of 60+ residents’ and community groups – began researching these developments in 2019. The current total of these actual and planned developments is now over 40,000 new homes, which would house over 80.000 new resident over the next 10 years. I can personally vouch for the authenticity of this as I began this research in 2019. By 2030 we could easily have over 500,000 patients registered at GP surgeries in Ealing. The sheer volume of demand surely demands the development and maintenance of a Major Hospital in the town. One would have to be somewhat deranged not to endorse this sentiment.

Only Belgium and Spain Have More Covid-19 Deaths/Million Than the UK

Belgium: 824

Spain: 580

UK: 562

Italy: 550

(Worldometer – 29 May 2020)

Government’s Test/Trace/Isolate Went Live on 28 May 2020

Well….sort of. ’The Guardian’ of 29 May 2020 quotes Test/Trace/Isolate supremo Baroness Dido Harding saying that 10,000 transactions will be the going rate ….in four weeks time. Press stories are legion about minimal training of tracers and patchy hook ups between Call Centre staff and Local Authorities (LAs). Not a peep out of my LA about its involvement. Stories are developing that the supporting IT falling over. As for the NHSX Smartphone App – it’s still apparently on holiday on the Isle of Wight…

LAs are claiming they were only informed of their role in the project on 22 May 2020. They also claim that money to pay for activities was only due to arrive today (1 June 2020). LAs point out that they lack the statutory powers to deal locally with new Covid-19 outbreaks, and they have real concerns that those traced and told to self-isolate may lack the financial ability to do so.

And it’s Public Health Professor Allyson Pollock who, as ever, hits the nail on the head about all this:

‘R values depend upon the data and timeliness. We should be looking at community prevalence’.

There is a Government test/trace/isolate web site:

https://contact-tracing.phe.gov.uk

However this site tells us nothing about the time path linking Covid-19 symptoms, testing, test result availability, contact by tracer, tracer contacting Covid-19 ‘suspects’ and subsequent isolation/quarantine of the suspects.

There is an interesting web site tracking Covid-19 R values across the country:

www.deckzero.com

At £50 Million/Month Covid-19 Tracing Had Better Work

25,000 Call Centre staff on an average salary of £10/hour, £1,500/month plus Serco’s/Sitel’s 20% gives us cost of £45 million for June 2020 alone. Add on 3,000 clinical support staff on around the same rate and we get this monthly cost up to £50.4 million. Goodness knows what Deloitte is getting paid for testing. And the cost of developing the NHSX Covid-19 Smartphone Tracing App? Who knows? 

Private Companies Known to Be Involved 

Serco, G4S, Mitie, Sodexo, Randox, Amazon, Palantir, Faculty, Google, Microsoft and Sitel

Non-Existent Emergency Dentistry for Many

The British Dental Association claims the DHSC has done a poor job in providing emergency dental care during the Civid-19 lockdown. After the lockdown began on 23 March 2020 it took two to three weeks to set up 550 NHS Dental Care Centres. Anecdotal evidence reveals patients in agony failing to get information or replies to messages left – never mind treatment. PPE for emergency dentists has been either in short supply or no supply. ‘The Observer’ on 31 May 2020 describes the horror of patients filling cavities themselves at home. Even when some dental practices will be allowed to open on 8 June 2020, many are unlikely to have adequate PPE to provide safe, sustainable services.

UK ‘Excess Deaths’ Totals Expose Massive Failings in Public Health Contingency Planning and Covid-19 Response Implementation

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has reported 53,960 ‘Excess Deaths’ in the UK from the start of the outbreak to 23 May 2020. Excess Deaths are typically defined as the difference between observed numbers of deaths and expected numbers. ‘The Guardian’ reported this on 27 May 2020.

A recognised expert on Excess Deaths is Dr Rodney Jones. One of his information sources is Euromomo, the recognised mortality data source across Europe. It calculates a ‘Z-score’ which is the standard deviation away from the expected average. England has the highest Z score of any country at 44. Spain is 35, Belgium 30 and Netherlands 24.

www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps/

Dr Rodney Jones’ analysis:

www.hcaf.biz/2020/Covid_Excess_Deaths.pdf

NHS NWL Bodies Exclude Real Time Public Involvement in Their Governing Body/Board Meetings

The LNWH Board meeting held on 27 May 2020 excluded any real time involvement of any of the 712,288 patients registered at Ealing and Harrow GP surgeries. This Trust runs Ealing and Northwick Park Hospitals. The public submitted questions but as of 1 June 2020 no answers have been forthcoming. It seems Covid-19 now allows NHS institutions’ management to carry on with no real time involvement of the public. Ealing CCG has not even scheduled any Governing Body meetings whether virtual/public excluded or otherwise. It no longer answers FOI questions itself – the NHS NWL Collaboration of 8 CCGs answers on its behalf.  One does wonder whether the other 134 CCGs remaining nationally are behaving in a similar way.

Currently non-statutory NHS bodies in north west London either never meet in public or are slow to organise virtual meetings.   The never-meet-in-public ones include Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and Integrated Care Systems (ICSs). The non-statutory NHS NWL Collaboration of CCGs does have web site presence, but no details are given about any future management meeting virtual/in public or whatever. What it does say is that it spends some £4 billion/year.

Does any of this matter? National Government is actually meeting now and you can watch proceedings on TV. Local Authorities are mastering the intricacies of using Microsoft MS Teams and running meetings being viewed by, and in some cases, involving the public. Local residents’ groups are now meeting using Zoom – so why can’t NHS institutions get their ‘transparency’ acts together?

Ealing Council Cancels Health and Social Care Meetings

Covid-19 is allowing some Local Authorities to duck out of statutory requirements to hold meetings. Ealing Council’s Health & Adult Social Services Committee meeting scheduled for 23 June 2020 is cancelled. The status of the Health and Adult Social Services Committee scheduled for 22 July 2020 is unknown.  You might have thought that with massive Covid-19 restructuring at Ealing Hospital, 381 Covid-19 Ealing deaths (92 in care/nursing homes), testing/tracing/isolation up and running in Ealing, that some emergency public virtual meetings might have suggested themselves.