Sickle cell disease is the name for a group of inherited conditions that affect the red blood cells. The most serious type is called sickle cell anaemia. It has a higher presence among people of African and Afro-Caribbean heritage. Last year, following a high-level meeting involving councillors, the Clinical Commissioning Group, acute trusts and the Sickle Cell community in Brent – one of the largest…
BPV does not usually publish NHS information or publicity documents, partly because there are too many. Some contain too much spin. Occasionally we come across something really useful. An example recently sent to us by NHS England lists the rights we have as NHS patients and explains their basis. This begs the question as to whether the people and the money are there to deliver…
BPV has received a copy of the NW London NHS “Footprint” Sustainability and Transformation Plan. Since we believe that it is in the public interest that this far-reaching document should be in the public domain and properly debated we attach a copy at the link below. We hope to produce an analysis as soon as we can but it is even more important that those…
We need to alert Brent NHS patients and their doctors to the serious continuing defects in Brent Community Cardiology Service. We have followed the start of this service as one of the first of the NHS Brent large ‘out-of -hospital’ services under the ‘Better Care: Closer to Home’ model proposed for both the NW London NHS ‘Shaping a Healthier Future’ project, and the new ‘Sustainability…
Sustainability & Transformation Plans (STPs) being prepared across the country on the orders of NHS chief Simon Stevens. There is a plausible view that they present the greatest threat to the NHS since the 1948 settlement. Although there is much that we don’t know, veils are removed almost every day. This is a brief account of what we have so far gleaned. We don’t think…
We were miffed about the recent two-page spread article in a recent number of the Brent & Kilburn Times about the cost to the NHS of patients missing their hospital appointments for no good reason. On 26 May the newspaper finally published the BPV response to this article, which we believe emanated from the NHS. In case you did not see it, here is the…
Deep emotions were stirred when consultant psychiatrist, Dr Aggrey Burke, addressed a public meeting in Brent on Race and Mental Health on Tuesday 19th April. Dr Burke, former senior lecturer and consultant psychiatrist at St George’s Hospital, London, was speaking at the Learie Constantine Centre, Willesden, at an event sponsored by Brent Mind and Brent Patient Voice (see earlier post). Recalling his origins in Jamaica…
At Brent Patient Voice’s first AGM on 19th April 2016 Interim Chair Robin Sharp CB presented an overview of the Group’s activities since it was founded in November 2014. This is his annual report to members: “Some members of the disbanded Equality, Diversity and Engagement (EDEN) Committee of the Brent Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), including some Chairs of the Locality Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) and…
In their main budget meeting on 6th April, open to observers from the public including BPV, Brent CCG Governing Body nodded through the 2016/17 draft budget of £430.4 million (3.05% increase on 2015/16) with a projected underlying surplus of £3.1 million without any challenge or vigorous questions at the meeting about how the budget pie should be divided up between clinical needs. The budget was…
BPV representatives attended the Brent CCG Governing Body budget pre-meeting question time for the public on 6th April 2016. We are allowed to submit questions relating to agenda items 48 hours before the meeting. There are usually about 2 to 3 working days to study the papers before we put questions in. This task is not everyone’s idea of fun, but we think someone should…
