The Royal Free’s A&E has been shut today thanks to a power failure.

This is from the BBC News site:

A London hospital has partially re-opened its accident and emergency department following a power failure.

The Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, north London, said it was still diverting ambulances after “a major internal incident” at 0845 BST.

A statement said the electrical fault had been corrected and main power supply has been restored but was still being tested.

A hospital spokesman said the A&E department was seeing walk-in patients.

She said: “The mains power supply has now been re-established.

“Although the power supply has returned, it is being tested and A&E will not be re-opened to ambulances until the trust is assured that the power supply is secure.”

It’s just as well the Whittington’s there isn’t it?

Over 100 people attended the fantastic meeting tonight where we discussed plans for the next stage of the campaign. The main focus will be a day of action on Thursday 29th April, one week before the probable general election date. The day of action has been arranged for a weekday so that people who work in the areas served by the Whittington can participate in their workplaces. There will also be a rally between 12.00 and 14.00 om the day.

We are going to attend the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) demonstration outside Parliament at 11.00 on Wednesday 24th March. Local PCS branches officially support the campaign and this is a good opportunity to get the attention of politicians and highlight the connections between the Whittington campaign and that of the wider Public Sector.

Rachel Tyndall will be attending a meeting at Islington Town Hall on Monday 29th March. We should have a delegation at the meeting. Placards outside at 19.00 then in to the meeting at 19.30.

There was much discussion from the floor and Jeremy Corbyn provided an update about activities in Parliament.

Islingtonnow tweeted from the meeting (and blew my attempts out of the water.) You can read their live account of the meeting here.

Much more was discussed and minutes from the meeting will be on the site soon.

Sorry for the  somewhat perfunctory nature of this post: your web chap is very , very tired.

The BBC have footage of Lynne Featherstone’s Westminster Hall debate, ‘London Hospitals’, from 17th March 2010 (a transcription from TheyWorkForYou was posted here the other day.). It includes contributions from Jeremy Corbyn, Health Minister Mike O’Brien and MPs from around London. At 1hr 30mins there’s quite a lot to get through but it’s well worth a watch if you have the time.

It’s available on the BBC site here.

Please remember to get along to tomorrow’s meeting if you can, 19.00 at the Whittington Park Community Centre. There are more details here.

Congratulations to the Defend Whittington Hospital Coalition for the superb organization of a brilliant demonstration; thanks also to the local police for their cooperation and efficiency in making sure that the march passed off safely and effectively.

The 5,000 of us who marched on Saturday represented people from Hetty Bower, aged 104, down to parents with new born babies. We represented every age, outlook and ethnic community that our borough has to offer.

We did so, because we are passionate in defending a National Health Service free at the point of use, and our local hospital at the Whittington. The A&E alone deals with over 80,000 emergencies per year and the hospital as a whole of course handles many other consultations and elective surgery. Any closure of the A&E department would, literally, cut off the lifeblood of the hospital.

The regional NHS planning group (London North Central) appear to be unaccountable and unconcerned, as they try to centralise services on two major hospitals, thus leaving Haringey and Islington with no major A&E departments of their own.

I have raised the issue several times in parliament, and I will continue to pressurize ministers and the House to understand that health officials have no business making plans for reducing expenditure, and absolutely no business taking away crucial local services that are so obviously loved and valued by everybody.

As the MP for North Islington, I am very clear where my priorities lie, keep the Whittington A&E!

Lynn Featherstone (Liberal Democrat MP and instrumental in North Central London NHS’s plan leaving their smokeless smokey back rooms and reaching the Whittington’s public) organised a public meeting tonight with Rachel Tyndall in attendance. This is the Islington Tribune report of the meeting:

SAVE OUR WHITTINGTON: Health chiefs face fresh grilling but give no guarantee consultation will save A & E

By RICHARD OSLEY

PATIENTS celebrating the success of the Save The Whittington Hospital march were brought down to earth last night when key administrators warned that widespread opposition might not be enough to stop accident and emergency services being axed.

At a meeting organised by Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone in Hornsey, neither Rachel Tyndall, Chairwoman of the North Central London (NCL) review panel or Richard Sumray, chairman of the Haringey Primary Care Trusy, could offer any assurance that the facility would be protected should a negative public response be confirmed in official consultation survey.
Mr Sumray would not go stronger than saying the views gathered in the upcoming survey would be “hugely important”.
Members of the 300 strong audience in the Greig Academy school hall had wanted a pledge that if there was no support for an overhaul of hospitals in north London, the plans would be abandoned.
An annoyed grimace fell across Mr Sumray’s face on the main stage when it was suggested by a heckler that he did not understand the question. “In health, people are always very resistant to change, generally they like what they’ve got,” he said. “So any change we have to make needs to have a compelling case. I am not going to say – and noone would say – what will happen as a consequence of consultation. All of the comments will be taken into account but I can’t tell you what the final decision will be now.”
The accident and emergency department and the maternity unit face the act in a wave of £500 million cuts and a re-organisation which will see patients treated in new, smaller GP surgeries. The Defend Whittington Hospital coalition organised one of the biggest marches in recent memory in north London on Saturday afternoon, with help from unions and the New Journal. We have run a Save Our Whittington campaign since November.
Ms Tyndall, who has so far born much of the brunt of the anger surrounding the campaign against the cuts, told the meeting she was proud “to be a public servant” working for the NHS, but said it was her job to test the private market over health services.
“We have all read in the newspapers about the public sector deficit,” she said. “We have to get the best value for tax-payers money. It’s all of ours money and we have to make sure its spent in the wisest possible way.”
Back on the subject of the future of the Whittington specifically, she admitted there was a chance that ambulances in the future could drive “past the front door of the hospital and go to an alternative hospital instead”, if one set of suggested changes were introduced.
When the audience murmured that the Royal Free in Hampstead was already too busy and unable to cope with thousands more patients, Ms Tyndall said that if hospitals worked in a more “efficient and productive way, there would be greater capacity”.
She added: “I don’t know what will happen because we haven’t yet made a decision about the Whittington Hospital.”
Ms Featherstone, the Hornsey and Wood Green MP who was in the front line of marchers on Saturday when 5,000 protetsters stopped traffic in Holloway Road on their way to the hospital forecourt, said: “I don’t think my guests see things in the same way – and that’s putting things mildly. Nobody I have spoken to either in this room or out there, thinks these proposals are a good idea. Given that, why don’t they refocus on keeping it open and making it work.”

Please visit the Islington Tribune site to read more about their support for the campaign and comment on the story.

http://www.islingtontribune.com/news/2010/mar/save-our-whittington-health-chiefs-face-fresh-grilling-give-no-guarantee-consultation-

This is an opportunity to ask more about the proposals and demand proper consultation.

There’s more information on Lynne Featherstone’s blog  here.

“NCL Vision

To improve the health of our population over the next five years compared with Londoners as a whole. In particular, we will improve health outcomes by addressing health inequalities within our population, focusing on our most deprived communities.”

As a world class commissioner of healthcare, our population will have access to more services closer to home and the highest quality hospital services.

http://dwhc.org.uk/info/haringey-links-away-day-8-feb-2010/

This is from what is probably the most worrying slide:

Proposed clinical model for acute care

Two major acute hospital sites, one in the north and one in the south

A multi-specialist acute provider for highly specialist and tertiary services

Rationalisation of specialist services (e.g. cardiac, neurosurgery) across RFH and UCLH and development of networked services for surrounding areas

Maximum of two local hospitals – three variants under consideration

Maximum of three in-patient paediatric sites which should be co-located with a major acute site or multi specialist acute.

Four obstetric units each catering for 6,000 births with level 2 NICU either co-located with a major acute, a medical and surgical emergency hospital or a multi specialist acute

No new stand alone midwifery led birthing units until further consideration

FEAR and uncertainty over the future of Whittington Hospital could spark a mass exodus of specialist staff, union leaders have warned.

Unison’s national head of health, Karen Jennings, said proposals to close down the Whittington’s accident and emergency department had left a dark cloud over the Highgate hospital.

She said A&E staff were “afraid” and “intimidated” and that hundreds of jobs will be axed if the casualty section is closed.

Ms Jennings said: “The concern is that medical teams, consultants and surgeons are already looking for jobs elsewhere.

“They fear their future will be short-lived. I have spoken to staff and they are afraid and intimidated. They have told me they are frightened to speak out. Hundreds of jobs will go if this goes through.”

Documents released last week revealed how the Whittington is under real threat of being designated as a “local hospital” – rather than its current “general” status – without key departments such as an A&E or a maternity unit.

Ms Jennings said the job cuts would be “much worse” than at the Royal Free Hospital where 180 posts are being “disestablished”, as revealed in the New Journal a fortnight ago.

Read the rest of the article here.

They’ve also put together a video for Casualty (the Whittington song):

Lynne Featherstone (MP for Hornsey and Wood Green) is holding a public meeting on Thursday the 4th March from 8 pm, Greig City Academy, Hornsey, N8 7NU. Rachel Tyndall will be attending and it will be interesting to see if things have changed since the Archway meeting a few weeks back. There’s more information about the meeting on Lynn’s blog.

Please remember to  join our Facebook group, sign up for the march and rally on 27th February, sign the petition, follow us on Twitter and spread the word.

Click here for the song: Whittington Song.

The Whittington Song, by Dave Plummer and Andria Britton.

Don’t make a casualty of our A&E,
Don’t try to fit us all in to the Royal Free,
Not saying nothing’s wrong with the Homerton,
But we need an A&E at the Whittington.

Don’t want the UCH when my leg, it breaks,
‘Coz getting there from Archway is a real headache,
If I break my arm I can’t go to Chase Farm,
Closing the Whittington will only do more harm.

You say the NHS is safely in your hands,
But the Foundations seem to be on shifting sands,
Funding ID Cards and Trident missiles is fine,
While our healthcare plummets headlong into steep decline.

Don’t make a casualty of our A&E,
Don’t try to fit us all in to the Royal Free,
Not saying nothing’s wrong with the Homerton,
But we need an A&E at the Whittington.

What would Bevan say if he were here today,
We’re trashing his great plan, throwing it all away,
While mothers with prams are stuck in traffic jams,
All because the NHS has a business plan.

When we need urgent care we hoped that you’d be there,
But you closed at eight o’clock: it’s gone eleven out here,
It’s an emergency. That’s the point you see,
Travelling extra miles could be the death of me.

Don’t make a casualty of our A&E,
Don’t try to fit us all in to the Royal Free,
Not saying nothing’s wrong with the Homerton,
But we need an A&E at the Whittington.

Our public health is envied by the world,
We’ve got something great, it shouldn’t be disturbed,
Forget about targets and action plans,
The health of a nation is in their hands.

Please don’t sell health off to the pigs at the trough,
Making money out of every rash, outbreak and cough,
Don’t go for money men, it’s our lives in the end,
Begone the shareholders and their dividends.

Don’t make a casualty of our A&E,
Don’t try to fit us all in to the Royal Free,
Not saying nothing’s wrong with the Homerton,
But we need an A&E at the Whittington.

Don’t make a casualty of our A&E,
Don’t try to fit us all in to the Royal Free,
Not saying nothing’s wrong with the Homerton,
But we need an A&E at the Whittington.

Deliberately not copyrighted: spread it around a bit!

The day of the demo looms closer so most of our activity is focusing on making it as much of a spectacle as possible.

Please note the *new route *- Assemble at *Highbury Corner at 12*, not Highbury Fields – and it will go to the front of the hospital in Magdala Avenue. Islington Tribune have hired a bus that will go ahead of the march – regs, I’m afraid.

*Mass leafleting* at Holloway Road, by Morrisons entrance *11.30 on Saturday 20th *February.

Please leaflet wherever you can and also use the petitions in hard copy and on line. You can use this leaflet for yours and others’ windows, in addition to the fab info and posters in last week’s Islington Tribune. Look forward to seeing you at the above events – especially the demonstration!

Shirley Franklin,

Joint Chair of Defend the Whittington Hospital Coalition

People really do feel very strongly about this. Having spent much of my leafleting time for other causes seeing people take a leaflet and shortly thereafter chuck it in a bin it’s a real pleasure to see them stop in their tracks as they read DWHC leaflets, turn around and come back to find out more.

There are a couple of photos but unfortunately WordPress seems to be having a bit of a moment and won’t let me put them on the site.  I’ll pop ’em on the Facebook group instead and hopefully get ’em up here when WordPress stops being stroppy.

Thanks to all of you for your support.  We can save our A&E if we shout loudly enough and our voices aren’t even warmed up yet.

Dave Plummer,

DWHC secretary and web fella’.