Can you ever believe NHS bosses?

This press release guaranteeing the future of Central Middlesex Hospital, was issued in April 2010! You'll see that A & E attendances at CMH weere very nearly as high as those at the much bigger Northwick Park Hospital and had been rising steadily year on year.

A Bright Future for Central Middlesex Hospital

Purpose of this document

We are circulating this document to set out the important role that Central Middlesex Hospital will have as a local hospital. 

There has been some negative publicity recently about the long term future of this well loved local hospital, which has understandably worried local people and patients. We think it is important that we put the record straight.

What are the facts?

Central Middlesex Hospital and its sister hospital Northwick Park Hospital are both part of The North West London Hospitals NHS Trust.  Northwick Park is the larger of the two sites and.provides more specialist services, serving residents from a wide part of North West London and across London.  It is much larger than Central Middlesex as the table below shows:

Table 1         Comparison of Northwick Park and Central Middlesex hospitals (using 2008/09 data)

	Northwick Park	Central Middlesex
Beds	467	173
Inpatients	60,082	29,770
Outpatients	210,131	95,742
A&E attendances	90,870	83,029

Over the past few years the Trust has changed the way some services are organised across the two hospitals.  Generally speaking more specialist services have moved to Northwick Park and more routine work like waiting list surgery has gone to Central Middlesex. 

For example, more planned operations are now performed at Central Middlesex but, on the other hand, Northwick Park now treats patients requiring emergency surgery in Brent and Harrow who would previously have gone to Central Middlesex. 

This approach reflects guidance from Healthcare for London, the programme set up to transform healthcare and improve standards of health in the capital.  This established the principle that healthcare should be localised where possible but centralised where larger scale services where necessary to improve safety and quality.  For example establishing specialist stroke centres at major hospitals like Northwick Park will save 400 Londoners’ lives.

The table below shows how activity has changed at Central Middlesex in the past five years.  Attendances to accident and emergency are up, as are elective (planned) admissions to hospital, non-elective (unplanned) admissions, and numbers of outpatient appointments and procedures.  Emergency surgery has reduced since the service was centralised at Northwick Park in 2009.

Table 2         Activity levels at Central Middlesex Hospital MH from 2005/06

Point of Delivery	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10 (Projected)	Variance between 2008-09 and 2009-10
A&E Attendances	73,754	75,189	80,964	82,525	85,566	3,041
Elective Admissions	16,028	14,730	17,505	17,223	17,178	777
Non-Elective Admissions	14,717	14,126	15,923	15,881	16,032	151
of which Non-Elective Surgery	3,900	3,029	3,238	2,892	2,322	-570
of which Non-Elective Medicine	10,817	11,097	12,685	12,989	13,090	101
Outpatient First Attendances		28,743	28,439	29,532	30,286	754
Outpatient Follow Up Attendances		75,307	70,522	73,295	73,738	443
Outpatient Procedures		443	1,253	1,511	4,582	3,071

We are currently undertaking a public consultation on children’s services with a proposal to establish consultant-led paediatric assessment units at both hospitals that would be open from 10am-10pm and centralise overnight beds at Northwick Park Hospital. 

We have made it clear as part of that consultation that these changes complement, rather than put at risk, the future role of Central Middlesex Hospital, that of an important provider of health services offering 24 hour a day, seven day a week accident and emergency services, urgent care, emergency medical services, diagnostics, waiting list surgery and outpatient services.

What are the future plans for Central Middlesex Hospital?

It is easy to understand why so many people choose Central Middlesex Hospital – it is a state-of-the-art, modern hospital which can easily be reached by local people from Brent and beyond. 

Central Middlesex’s role – and that of other hospitals – will evolve and change as the Healthcare for London programme develops and government policy changes. In the meantime Central Middlesex will benefit from the following developments over the next twelve months:

·       Operating capacity will be increased so that more patients can receive orthopaedic and other surgical treatments;

·       An Urgent Care Centre is planned to open alongside A&E so that GPs can see the patients whose need is for primary rather than emergency care;

·       As part of the changes to children’s services, we will introduce a free relatives’ transport service between Central Middlesex and Northwick Park.  This will make it easier for family members to visit their loved ones who may be treated at either hospital.

·       We intend to develop even better models of care for patients with long term conditions such as diabetes, asthma and heart problems.  It is hoped that services will be more easily available in the community as well as at Central Middlesex Hospital itself which may also house a GP staffed polyclinic on site.

Conclusion

We hope that, after reading this document, local people are reassured that Central Middlesex Hospital remains an integral part of the health service in Brent.  You can continue to be proud of your safe, modern, local hospital that remains the first choice for an increasing number of patients.

If you require further information please contact the Acute Services Review team on 020 8869 3701.

Mark Easton          Chief Executive NHS Brent

Fiona Wise Chief Executive The North West London Hospitals NHS Trust