The national NHS news remains worrying. Today we have news of junior doctors voting on a strike. A new OECD report says that Britain now comes low in the international league tables for most categories of national healthcare. Male expectation of life at birth comes 14th out of 34, and 24th for women. Cancer 5 year survival rates are 21 out of 23 nations for…
We are glad to acknowledge that Brent CCG has responded in detail to questions from the BPV Steering Group posed at its two (yes two) Annual General Meetings this autumn. The second was held on 14th October after BPV pointed out that the first was not constitutional. See our earlier story “The AGM that never was”. The CCG responses have been put together in a…
Following our earlier story “Hiccups with the new Brent Community Cardiology Clinics” we can now report some progress, but only after intensive probing by BPV. There are now clinics at both centres each weekday. More specialist cardiologists have been appointed although not all have started yet. At the same time there has been turnover at senior level. There was a gap in the contact specification…
On 5 October 2015 Brent CCG published on its website a 66-page document setting out draft plans for funding healthcare for Brent residents in 2016/17. In the jargon this is called “Commissioning Intentions”. You can find the full text on the Brent CCG website. The public are invited to comment. To help those who attended the Health Partners Forum (public event) yesterday 7th October BPV…
“Shaping a Healthier Future” is the name of the process for changing the functions of the 9 acute general hospitals in NW London. Our earlier story “Stilettos and hatchets at the Civic Centre” reported on the public hearings of the Mansfield Commission into the Shaping project at Brent Civic Centre on 9 May. Since then Rob Larkman and other leaders of the Shaping team invited…
BPV made one of its rare non-virtual appearances at Queen’s Park Day on Sunday 13th September. On a mostly sunny day thousands of people enjoyed exciting performances, shows and stalls. We used our stall to show the flag and had some interesting conversations with local partners, even if the Great British Public’s mind was on other things. Not many people had time to fill in…
On 2 September 2015 the Brent CCG held what it hoped would be its Annual General Meeting for 2014/2015. Only it wasn’t. As everyone who has belonged to an organisation knows, be it the mighty National Trust or a humble residents’ association, when you have an AGM you have to follow your constitution. Unfortunately the CCG did not do this in spite of warnings…
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…
Brent Patient Voice (BPV) extends a warm welcome to Healthwatch Brent(HWB) in its new incarnation. Some of our members attended the Healthwatch Brent public meeting on 1st October (details below). We are pleased that although HWB is under new management there are familiar faces among the staff. Ian Niven, formerly Co-ordinator, is now Head of Healthwatch Brent and will be its public face. All operations…
In a separate story we report significant problems persisting more than 5 months after the opening of the new NHS Brent GP referral adult community cardiology clinics at Willesden and Wembley Centres for Health and Care. It is important to mention the statutory right of ‘patient choice’ of hospital when patients’ GPs refer them to for investigation and treatment. We are fortunate that in London…