Ashford Hospital Consultation
The Public Consultation over the futures of Ashford Hospital and St. Peter's Hospital in Chertsey - "Shaping the future of your Local Health Services" is now in full swing.
There was a public workshop meeting in Bedfont on Wednesday 10th December, held in St. Mary's Church Hall. This was quite well attended, and allowed the major concerns of Bedfont's residents to be aired, and to be answered by management from Ashford and St. Peter's Hospitals NHS Trust (ASP) and Hounslow Primary Care Trust (PCT).
The 1st major concern was that Ashford Hospital was to be run down prior to future closure. This is denied in the consultation document, and was denied at the meeting by Dr. Mike Baxter, John James, and Cath Attlee. The reasoning behind this was outlined by Glenn Douglas (Chief Executive of ASP) - without Ashford Hospital, the trust would lack both sufficient facilities and catchment area.
The 2nd major concern was regarding transport, specifically public transport from Bedfont/Feltham/Hanworth to St. Peter's, and public use of the inter-site bus. Unfortunately, public transport provision is not something that NHS bodies can direct, and so this may always be a difficult matter.
The 3rd major concern was ambulance travel times to the A+E Department at St. Peter's, especially during peak periods. Public perception has not yet caught up with reality in this regard - the job of the ambulance is no longer "scoop and run". With immediate treatment more often being given by Ambulance Service paramedics, the time to arrive at the place of the incident is generally much more important. While the Ambulance Station remains in Faggs Road, Bedfont residents are usually going to benefit from relatively short arrival times.
The 4th major concern related to a major incident at Heathrow Airport, with no A+E at Ashford. The contingency plans potentially involve all hospitals in and near West London and the Thames Valley, depending on which transport routes become blocked, but Ashford Hospital would generally be used for treating less badly injured casualties.
The cynical observer might wonder whether the intention to further reduce acute services at the better-placed Ashford Hospital is because to perform a U-turn at this stage (apart from costing more money) would make the decisions made so far, and the decision-makers, look a little silly. The recent sell-off of land at the east end of the Ashford site to a residential nursing home has severely curtailed expansion options.
A further meeting has been set for Tuesday 20th January at Bedfont Library, starting at 12 noon.
The website with information about the consultation and from which you can download the documents is as below.
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