Camden News: Polyclinics | Royal Free Hospital | Hospitals struggle to find room for super-surgeries

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Camden News - by TOM FOOT
Published: 19 June 2008

Small problem, but polyclinics push on

Hospitals struggle to find room for super-surgeries

HEALTH chiefs are pressing ahead with controversial plans to open dozens of polyclinics across London – but finding space for the super-sized surgeries is not proving easy.
At the Royal Free Hospital tens of thousands of patients’ medical records are being squeezed into a smaller room to make space on the Hampstead hospital’s ground floor.
And at University College London Hospital, plans to open the “finest maternity hospital in the country” have been scaled down.
Bosses at UCLH have confirmed the ground and bottom floors of the new £70million Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (EGA) “wing” has been earmarked for the super surgery.
Dr Wendy Savage, chairwoman of the Keep NHS Public campaign group and a distinguished gynaecologist and champion of women’s rights in childbirth, said: “The new EGA hospital was supposed to accommodate all of the services that were provided in Huntley Street.
“Staff in obstetrics and gynaecology are upset because they say they feel they are being squeezed. This is all happening in a supposedly super multi-million-pound hospital.”
Dr Ali Alibhai, a partner at the Gower Place surgery, one of four surgeries which could be shut down and moved into the UCLH polyclinic, said: “One of the problems with the polyclinic scheme is that there is no land in central London for them to be built. They are planning to close our surgeries and move us into the UCLH – but there is very little evidence that anyone wants this.”
Polyclinics are part of radical NHS reforms with hospital outpatient services and GPs coming together under one roof.
The UCLH polyclinic will swallow up four surgeries – Gower Street, Gower Place, Bedford Square and Museum Street – with patients making the hospital super-surgery the first port of call for basic check-ups and prescriptions.
“They are expected to be run by private firms such as UnitedHealth, which took control of three surgeries in Camden in April.
A UCLH spokesman said: “We assess that 40 per cent of people attending our accident and emergency are not suffering from accidents or emergencies. We would love to have the first polyclinic. It would help us treat genuine accidents and emergencies.
“The trouble is we need someone to pay for it. There is no point us having services here at UCLH that the PCT are not prepared to pay for.”
He added: “The go-ahead has been given for polyclinics. If the PCT is prepared to commission, or find a commissioner, then we would be more than happy to have it here.
“The space in the lower and ground floors of our Phase 2 development were always open for discussion in a rapidly changing environment and dynamic time. The EGA will be the best in London. Everything we need to provide will be provided over three floors.”

• Former health minister Frank Dobson, Labour MP for Holborn and St Pancras, will speak at a public meeting on the future of the NHS at the Caversham Group Practice. The meeting will be at the Kentish Town surgery on Wednesday June 25 from 7.30pm.

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