Public Meeting Held in Osterley on Healthcare Provision

West Middlesex Hospital and provision of local GP services discussed

The Osterley & Wyke Green Residents' Association (OWGRA) held a public meeting in Isleworth & Syon Boys School on 27 February to discuss local NHS health provision and future plans.

Presentations were given by representatives from the Hounslow Clinical Commissioning Group (HCCG) and from West Middlesex University Hospital.

Over 50 local residents braved the freezing and snowy winter weather to attend the meeting.

It was explained that from April 2018 HCCG would be directly responsible for commissioning GP services in Hounslow and that major issues included the following:

• Over 30% of hospital inpatients could be treated elsewhere,
• 10% of patients discharged from hospital are readmitted within a month which is twice the national average,
• Young and working people and children account for most of the increase in A&E attendance,
• Significantly more people die from heart disease and stroke in Hounslow than the England average,
• Total cost for children’s continuing healthcare services has increased over 3½ times in 4 years.

GP practices are starting to work together to extend a wider range of services and cooperate with other providers.  Shortly, GP surgeries will be open 8-8 Mon-Fri and 50% of local practices will be open on Sat mornings by Oct 2018.  New targets will be set for practices to improve telephone access, patient satisfaction, confidence in managing one’s own health. Recruitment of medical staff remains a major problem.

West Middlesex Hospital is broadly managing to meet the three main targets for hospitals:

• 95% of patients seen in A&E within 4 hours (despite an 18% increase in patients seen in A&E in the first 2 months of 2018),
• 92% of patients ‘Referred to Treatment’ within the 18-week target,
• Cancer patients seen, diagnosed and on a treatment pathway within 62 days.

West Mid ranks best in London for meeting these targets and is in the top ten for the UK. It has been running at 98% capacity this winter. Even so very few elective surgeries were cancelled - unlike elsewhere.

There was a lively Q&A session following the presentations. Questions were asked about booking GP appointments, the impact of cuts, the reasons for recruitment difficulties and many other issues.

The meeting chairman Peter Goulding concluded by saying “We’ve got a lot of good people working their socks off trying to provide the right services for us”. He said that there is not enough money in the system but that the new forms of cooperation will help to offset the problems this raises. He encouraged everyone provide feedback to the committees currently discussing the proposed changes individually and through Patent Participation Groups and residents’ associations.

A more detailed report plus audio recordings of the presentations is available on the OWGRA website www.owgra.org.uk

March 15, 2018