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Camden New Journal - HEALTH by TOM FOOT
Published: 26 March 2009

MP Glenda Jackson fields questions from pupils at the Royal Free’s school.

Royal Free in bid to become one of city’s major trauma centres

Scheme would see patients brought from across London

A MASSIVE shake-up of accident and emergency services in London could see the Royal Free Hospital taking patients from as far away as Heathrow.
NHS London, the strategic health authority for the capital, wants four hospitals to receive all London patients needing specialist urgent care for serious injuries like knife or gunshot wounds or serious road traffic accidents.
The Royal Free in Hampstead is competing with St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington to become a “major trauma centre”, providing treatments for patients from large areas of north, west and central London.
It would mean victims of major trauma in south Camden being taken to the Royal Free, despite University College London Hospital (UCLH) being much closer.
London Health Emergency’s spokesman Dr John Lister said: “The plans threaten a nightmare for emergency ambulance services.
“While NHS London talks of its concern for more equitable access to care, it is hard to see how the Royal Free, the second smallest A&E in the capital – located in well-heeled leafy Hampstead, with notoriously rotten road links – has managed to get on the shortlist to treat patients from deprived areas in north and central London.”
NHS Camden is willing to invest £12million in the major trauma centre it believes will give all patients access to specialist treatment within 45 minutes and free-up waiting times in accident and emergency departments in other hospitals.
NHS Camden is also planning to make major changes to critical stroke treatment.
University College London Hospital has been designated as one of eight London “hyper-acute units” providing patients with specialised treatment within 30 minutes of arrival.
It means stroke victims who would normally have been taken to accident and emergency in north Camden – the Whittington in Archway, or the Royal Free in Hampstead – would be taken by ambulance to UCLH in Bloomsbury instead.
Speed is critical for stroke victims – for every hour lost the brain loses as many cells as it does in 3.6 years of ageing.
Neighbourhood groups have been informed about the planned changes and patients from north Camden have contacted the New Journal to air their concerns that they will have longer distances to travel in the event of a stroke.
But Nick Losseff, clinical lead for stroke care at UCLH and for the North Central Network, said patients were 25 per cent more likely to recover from a stroke if treated in a specialist centre.
He said: “At present only a few patients benefit from hyper-acute treatments, but with these plans every Londoner will be within 30 minutes of a hyper-acute unit.”
A spokesman for NHS London said consultation on the plans has ended but patients can read more information at www.healthcareforlondon.nhs.uk

And finally... Hospital school grill MP

BUDDING journalists from a school for patients in the Royal Free Hospital interviewed Glenda
Jackson about the government’s record on controlling the super bug MRSA.
The Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate fielded questions and was asked what ordinary patients and hospital staff could do to help stop the spread of infectious diseases.
The pupils are making a film to be broadcast on the BBC News website.
Ms Jackson said: “The pupils came up with some interesting and informed questions about MRSA. It was obvious they had done research into the subject.”
Pupil Eugene, 14, said: “The experience of being in front of a camera felt really
professional. A lot of stuff didn’t go to plan but we carried on and at the end it all came together.”
Mike Kelly, a senior teacher in the school, said: “This has been an amazing opportunity for the pupils in our hospital school to work with the BBC and make a news item for broadcast. They have learned so much and grown hugely in confidence.”
The film can be seen at www.bbc.co.uk/schoolreport

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