Whittington Hospital experts fear for jobs as A&E axe looms
Trade union tells how specialist staff are working under cloud of uncertainty as NHS officials defend plans that could mean end of Whittington Hospital
Published: 18 February 2010
by TOM FOOT
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.
She urged staff to join a protest and rally leaving Highbury Corner at noon on February 27, which the New Journal and its sister newspaper, the Islington Tribune, have been publicising with a poster campaign.
Hospitals in north London must plug a £500million funding cut over the next five years following a government shake-up.
Pamela Okuns-Edokpayi, regional Unison representative for the Whittington and Royal Free hospitals, said: “People are worried about jobs and services being moved out of the hospital. But no one is sure about the situation. We have not been told about any job cuts.
“Our concern is for the patients and we are worried about the impact on the emergency services at the Royal Free.”
Islington and Camden unions have pledged their support for the campaign and the Camden branch of Keep Our NHS Public will be out leafleting and collecting signatures on Saturday.
Thousands of patients and high-profile Whittington patients including radical Tariq Ali and actors Steve McFadden (EastEnders’ Phil Mitchell) and Juliet Stephenson have joined the public outcry.
Politicians from all parties have also joined the campaign, including MPs across Camden, Islington and Haringey.
Patients at the Royal Free, meanwhile, are also active, as they fear closing services at the Whittington could lead to unprecedented and unmanageable demand at the Hampstead hospital.
Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, added another voice of concern during a visit to Kilburn on Friday.
“It makes me immensely angry when these possible cuts are floated in the press by people no one has heard of,” he said. “Who are these people? How dare they suddenly threaten it? It is completely the wrong way round. Why are we protecting the bureaucrats and administrators and threatening A&E and maternity wards?”
On Friday, the New Journal was summoned to the headquarters of North Central London (NCL) sector NHS Trust in Islington to meet administrators working on the changes.
They insist they are not being driven by costs and that the proposals have the support of the London Ambulance Service. And they said the A&E could be closed without patient safety being compromised, arguing that the unit’s 80,000 patients would be more effectively treated at the Royal Free Hospital, newly built GP health centres and in specialist hospital treatment units.
NCL’s Stephen Conroy, the NHS official managing the review, said a blueprint for hospital services in north London had already been “90 per cent” decided by a body called the Clinical Advisory Group (CAG).
“They [CAG] have given us a clinical model,” he said. “It shows how many beds we need, maternity sites, how many major acute hospitals, how many local hospitals.
“It’s not finalised but it is pretty firm. But for about 90 per cent of it, they are very clear on what that means.”
The clinical model recommends that 40 per cent of treatments in north London’s five hospitals – Barnet, North Middlesex, Royal Free, University College London and the Whittington – would be better provided in community health centres.
Mr Conroy added: “When you take that clinical model, when you apply it to a blank sheet of paper, it is clear you would not build the hospitals where we have got them now. They are just there for random reasons because they are ex-workhouses or because someone in a medical school felt it would be a great idea. So they’re not there because we’ve designed healthcare to be the best in the world, they’re there because of history.
“They have given us these recommendations and in a way there’s no argument about that.“
While NCL chief executive Rachel Tyndall has repeatedly insisted no decision has been taken, it is clear they are working towards a “clinical model” that recommends the Whittington be altered beyond recognition.
The Defend Whittington Hospital Coalition (DWHC) took to the streets on Saturday collecting signatures for a petition and raising awareness about the march on February 27.
DWHC secretary Dave Plummer said: “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, turn around and come back to find out more.”
• Mr Plummer has written the official Save the Whittington song, which can be heard at www.islingtontribune.com/news/2010/feb/save-our-whittington-now-hear-off...
• For more information visit www.dwhc.org
Rally round! Shops show support
YOU might have noticed something different about the window displays in Highgate and Archway this week.Shopkeepers have been showing their support for the campaign to save the Whittington A&E by putting up our special posters printed in last week’s Islington Tribune.
From estate agents, pub landlords, coffee shop baristas, newsagents to kebab shop owners – you name it – they were all happy to get involved.
Designer Avril Castellazzo, owner of Walter Castellazzo Design in Highgate High Street, said: “I think people in Highgate are very concerned about this. It is our local hospital and you can just walk down there.”
Archway kebab house manager Metin Kaplan said the proposal was “crazy”.
A protest march will leave Highbury Corner at midday on February 27, ending with a rally and speeches outside the hospital in Magdala Avenue.
JOSH LOEB
It’s criminal! Backing from fun lovin’ superstars
IT’S all about the patients’ rebellion, but a boost from a famous face joining the campaign can’t hurt.
And this week Huey Morgan, frontman of the multi-platinum selling New York band the Fun Lovin’ Criminals, provided the latest endorsement.
The singer, who shot to fame with the single Scooby Snacks and now lives in London, said: “A really good friend of mine got stitched up there and they did a good job. This is the first step to everything going downhill. If you can’t help your citizens when they’re sick it doesn’t show people that you hold them in high regard.”
The broad mix of support for the campaign has already seen the likes of broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, author Nick Hornby, comic actor Charlie Higson, actress Juliet Stevenson, playwright Stephen Poliakoff and actor Warren Mitchell sign up.
And Belsize Park singer Stephen Jones, the frontman of Babybird, who charted with the hit You’re Gorgeous, said: “It’s ridiculous. I don’t understand it. We need to have more services like this, not less.
“When my girlfriend was pregnant we went to the Whittington.
“I don’t know how you can close it. I don’t know the political side of anything but I know it seems really weird that just because banks got us into this trouble and debt we’re now having to make cuts in the NHS.”
RÓISÍN GADELRAB