If you have used or tried to use one of the new Community Cardiology clinics which have been operating at the Willesden and Wembley Centres for Health & Care since the beginning of March we would like to hear from you. The background to our interest is explained in the separate blog on this Home Page. Today we sent the following letter to our local newspaper which describes what we are looking for.
“Letter to the Editor of the Brent and Kilburn Times
Dear Editor
Brent Patient Voice, a new organisation that speaks up for patients in our Borough, would like feedback from any of your readers who have used the new Community Cardiology outpatient clinics at the Wembley and Willesden Centres for Health and Care. These consultant-led clinics have been operating since the beginning of March. They are paid for by Brent Clinical Commissioning Group and provided, after a competitive tendering exercise, by the Royal Free Hospital Trust.
Unfortunately we discovered that instead of providing “improved care closer to home” as promised, patients have so far been experiencing prolonged waiting times for appointments and the clinics have not been operational for anything approaching the hours advertised. For the first four months the Willesden Clinic had no IT in place. Since mid-June we have been making vigorous representations to the CCG and Royal Free about the problems. We are pleased to say that they have openly admitted the various shortcomings, including serious under-staffing at clinical level, and met us to discuss the remedial steps they are taking. Readers can find more about this on our website: www.bpv.org.uk .
While the shared information tells us how many patients are experiencing long waits it does not say anything about the quality of care or any consequences of the delays, e.g. for the “rapid access chest pain” service. If any readers have used the new clinics or have relatives or friends who have done so we would be pleased to hear of your experience in confidence. The information would be retained and used in anonymised form. This would cover length of time to appointment, clinic used, quality of consultation or test experience, onward referral to hospital or back to your GP. Please email the information to robisharp@googlemail.com or post to BPV, 30 Windermere Avenue, NW6 6LN.
Yours sincerely
Robin Sharp CB
Interim Chair Brent Patient Voice
30 Windermere Avenue, NW6 6LN 1st September 2015