Whittington’s A&E unit faces new closure threat - NHS bosses must save £230m

Published: 23 June 2011
by ANDREW JOHNSON

THE future of the accident and emergency unit at Whittington Hospital was plunged into confusion this week when the head of the NHS in north London refused to rule out closures or a reduction in opening hours as they seek to chop £230million from their annual bill.

When approached by the New Journal, a spokesman for the new commissioning body – NHS North Central London (NCL) – said there were “no plans” to reduce accident and emergency opening hours or to close the unit.

But Emily Thornberry, the Labour MP for Islington South, said it revealed “the chaos” at the heart of the NHS.

“Of course they can say they have no plans, because no one has any plans. No one knows what they are doing,” she said.

The row emerged on Saturday at a rally to defend the NHS when 200 people packed the Assembly Rooms at Islington Town Hall.

Ms Thornberry held up a letter she had received from Paula Khan, chairwoman of NCL, the body formed from the merger of Camden, Islington, Haringey, Barnet and Enfield Primary Care Trusts, and which is responsible for commissioning care in the five boroughs.

The body needs to cut £230m from its budget and should have made its decision on how to go about it by March, but has failed to do so. Of that figure, £26m has been earmarked to be lopped off “unscheduled care plans” by 2015.

Ms Thornberry had written to Ms Khan seeking confirmation that “unscheduled care” means A&E and ambulance services and if so whether NCL was considering “restructuring and/or reducing A&E and ambulance services”. She also asked: “Will A&E departments like the Whittington maintain the same opening hours, levels of staff and quality of care in 2014/15?”

In reply, Ms Khan wrote: “I can confirm that our definition of unscheduled care includes all services where a patient needs to access a health professional urgently and therefore does include A&E and ambulance services.”

She added that the trust was introducing “urgent care centres” next to A&E units to treat people who turned up to A&E but didn’t need specialist emergency care. This was to reduce costs and increase the service.

Ms Khan added: “Our (financial) plan will clearly impact on the pattern and design of service provision across NCL and will have implications for the level of income available to providers, the extent of which is not yet fully known.”

The letter went on to say that the Whittington was looking at its own future provision and when this was complete “we will have a clearer understanding of [its] future financial and clinical viability”.

An NHS spokeswoman said: “There will be no cuts to A&E. There are no plans to close A&E.”

Last year, the New Journal and its sister newspaper, Islington Tribune, led an award-winning campaign to keep the A&E at the Whittington Hospital after it was threatened  with closure.