Woman 'denied sight-save drugs'

A grandmother has said she will go blind unless she can persuade her local NHS to fund drug treatment - reports the BBC.

Margaret Coates, 79, from Bromley, south-east London, has wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which can lead to blindness in both eyes.

Her local Primary Care Trust (PCT) will not pay for a drug called Lucentis, Mrs Coates said.

Bromley PCT said patients who did not meet London-wide treatment criteria could apply for exceptional treatment.

Wet AMD, which affects the central part of the retina, is the leading cause of sight loss in the UK, affecting around a quarter of a million people.

Last year the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommended that NHS patients with wet AMD should be eligible for sight-saving drug Lucentis.

But the availability of the treatment, which can cost thousands of pounds, varies between PCTs.

Mrs Coates, 79, said: "I can't believe the PCT is abandoning me like this when I could lose my sight.

"The thought of going blind terrifies me"

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and the Macular Disease Society (MDS) are campaigning for Bromley PCT to reverse its decision and fund the treatment.

Bromley PCT said it funds Lucentis treatment for Bromley residents with AMD in line with criteria agreed for the whole of south-east London.

"Patients who do not meet these criteria can apply through their clinician to the PCT's exceptional treatments group," a spokesman said.

In order to qualify there must be an "unusual or unique clinical factor" that differentiates the patient from others with the condition, he said.

London: Health summit paves way for abolition of traditional hospitals

A major health summit is taking place today will change the face of the NHS in London, reports the Evening Standard.

Senior managers and doctors are meeting to draw up plans that will abolish traditional hospitals.

They are finalising a major consultation document that asks every Londoner to decide if GPs should move into big polyclinics.

Patients will be asked a series of crucial questions - signed off at today's meeting - that will lead to the massive changes next year.

They will be asked about the centralisation of services such as trauma care, treatment of children and the care of stroke victims should be centralised away from local hospitals into so-called "specialist" centres.

And whether more maternity departments should be run by midwives instead of doctors.

The consultation will be launched at the end of the month and is likely to trigger battles to
save local services.

Bosses have refused to name the hospitals and surgeries that should close and are consulting on "ideas" first.

Robert Creighton, chief executive of Ealing primary care trust, and one of the leaders of the consultation, said: "We want to get people's views about the proposals and we intend genuinely to listen to what the public have to say."

But doctors have warned that the plan is being driven through. Dr Stewart Drage, head of Londonwide Local Medical Committees, said: "We have reservations about this whole process. We are concerned that the local input is going to be very limited."

It comes as campaigners find out the results of a consultation to downgrade Chase Farm hospital in north Enfield.

Thousands have been fighting plans to move A&E and maternity services to Barnet and North Middlesex and make Chase Farm a community hospital.

The summit meeting into changes across the capital - taking place at the Sofitel hotel near St James's Park - could mean the plans for Barnet and Chase Farm change again.

The proposals are based on plans drawn up in the summer by junior health minister Lord Darzi, who is now leading a nationwide review of the NHS.

Questions must be asked as to whether these changes are being driven more by attempts at cost-cutting than to enhance patient care.

With MPs voting an extra £7bn to the European Union completely without justification on Monday of this week, public funds for essential services are becoming increasingly tight.

It's time MPs looked again at the real priorities of those they represent, before they give final approval to this multi-billion-pound funding increase to an organisation that has failed its annual audit for 13 years and is beset by reports of needless extravagance, waste and fraud.

Come next year, it'll be no good MPs posturing in protest against hospital closures in their constituencies if they've voted to waste such vast sums of public money on the EU. They will be personally responsible for the money running out, and themselves can expect to pay the price at the ballot box.

Southwark: Ex-nurse warns over clinic closure

A former nurse has spoken out to defend a vital mental health clinic threatened with closure - reports icSouthLondon.

Ian Rawlins damned proposals to close the Felix Post Unit (FPU), which is a centre used by the elderly.

Mr Rawlins has spent 25 years working in the NHS, the past five as an associate nurse in the clinic in the Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill.

He left earlier this year and says he is appalled at moves to close the FPU.

"It's time to stand up," he said. "This would have a severe impact on these people, on their families and on their communities. I was shocked to hear a senior manager at one meeting talk about 'through-put' - getting people in and out as quickly as possible without trying to look at the whole person. He may as well have called it 'conveyor belt care'."

"There are always other factors with one of our patients - physical things, family things, social problems. It's more than just their mental health."

He believes if the service is scrapped patients with physical or social problems will stop getting the joined-up care they need.

The FPU works as a drop-in centre which sees around 30 people a day.

Elderly patients can get help on the spot for mental health problems and advice on anything else they need.

Southwark Pensioners Action Group (SPAG) and Southwark Mind have both responded angrily to plans to cut or close the centre.

But South london and Maudsley NHS Trust (SLaM) said a consultation on the future of the FPU and day-care services across Lambeth and Southwark was planned for later in the year.

If closed, the FPU would be the second unit closed by SLaM in a year,after the Maudsley's 24-hour emergency clinic was shut to patients in May.

Campaigners are fighting to over-turn that decision. North Southwark and Bermondsey MP Simon Hughes recently submitted a 5,000-signature petition calling for it to be reopened.

NHS maternity care 'is in crisis'

Fears over the standard of NHS services for expectant mothers were heightened last night after it emerged that the number of maternity beds has fallen by up to 40% in some regions - reports the Daily Telegraph.

The information, obtained from a parliamentary answer, said that since Labour came to power in 1997, there had been an 18% reduction in the number of maternity beds for every 100,000 people - equivalent to almost 2,000 beds in the past 10 years.

But in some strategic health authority areas, the drop was much more dramatic with reductions of 40% in north-west London and South Yorkshire.

There were 35% fewer maternity beds in the Leicestershire, Northants and Rutland area as well in the South-West Peninsula authority area since 1997.

Even in the County Durham and Tees Valley, where until recently Tony Blair had his constituency, the decline was 32%.

A Tory spokesman insisted that Labour could not claim that home births made up for the decline as Government figures showed that only 2% of women gave birth at home in 2006/07.

The answer also highlighted the relative lack of midwives, confirming that their numbers are not keeping pace with the number of live births.

Since 2001, the number of live births had risen by 12.5% but the number of midwives rose by 4.5%.

London: Hospitals fail to meet superbug targets

London hospitals are struggling to cope with deadly superbugs, despite a major hygiene drive in the NHS - reports the Evening Standard.

Figures released today by the Health Protection Agency show rising rates of the potentially fatal stomach bug Clostridium Difficile.

Almost 1,680 people contracted the bug in the first three months of this year - a rise of 14% on the previous three months.

Additionally, around 1,200 people contracted MRSA - 25% more than the target level.

The figures come only days after chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson attacked hospitals for an "unacceptable level of hygiene".

Barnet and Chase Farm NHS Hospitals Trust was issued with an improvement notice last month for serious breaches of the rules, including basic measures such as not having alcohol hand-rubs.

The highest numbers of C.Difficile cases were at Barnet and Chase Farm hospitals (Theresa Villiers MP and Joan Ryan MP), with 188 in the three months from January to March.

There were 132 cases at Whipps Cross (Harry Cohen MP), 123 cases at St George's Healthcare NHS Trust (Sadiq Kahn MP & Martin Linton MP) and 118 at Kingston Hospital (Ed Davey MP).

Other hospitals where cases of MRSA are on the increase include Newham University Hospital (Lyn Brown MP), Hillingdon Hospital (John Randall MP), and West Middlesex University Hospital (Ann Keen MP).

Many other London hospitals, while reducing the number of cases over previous years, still suffer a problem. And MPs would surely agree that even one superbug case is one too many.

So are these MPs going to vote to waste billions of pounds extra on the audit-failing EU - completely without justification - while their constituency hospital needs further investment to improve hygiene?

People are dying due to this hygiene problem. Can't the EU manage to get by on the £3.5bn a year (net) we already hand over every year? That's surely more than our fair share.

Health care cuts are 'half-baked' policies

Compulsory redundancies could cripple' our hospitals and cause residents' confidence in the NHS to plummet, it has been claimed - according to the Richmond & Twickenham Times.

According to research by the London Assembly Conservatives, as many as 2,500 jobs could be axed in NHS health trusts across south-west London, including Hounslow, Kingston and Richmond.

Tony Arbour, Richmond and Hounslow's Assembly member, said: "These latest figures show just how much this Government's half-baked policies are destabilising the NHS and making the work of local Primary Care Trusts and hospitals virtually impossible."

The research comes after a leaked Department of Health memo recently revealed there will be a critical shortage of nurses and GPs in the longer term. The memo contained proposals for 37,000 NHS job cuts across the capital within the next 12 months.

Tony Arbour AM added: "The prospect of job losses across the NHS in Hounslow, Kingston and Richmond will not only be unsettling for the staff themselves, but patients will also continue to lose confidence in the services the NHS should be providing at critical times in their lives.

"Kingston and the West Middlesex hospitals could be crippled if these proposals are implemented. I and my colleagues will resist them."

Kingston hospital, where many borough residents receive treatment, say they have been holding a number of vacant posts in anticipation of reduced activity or income and efficiency savings.

They confirmed that 20 clinical and administrative staff are at risk of redundancy, but claim that many of these will be redeployed into vacant posts within the trust.

A spokesman said: "The trust's consultation on workforce reductions has come to an end and decisions have been made as a result of feedback from staff and unions and it is vital to clarify that not all staff at risk will be made redundant."

London: Health cash row in parliament

The escalating row over NHS funding in South London was taken to the House of Commons.

MPs Simon Hughes and Kate Hoey quizzed Health Minister Patricia Hewitt about the future of health-care last week.

Even though Lambeth and Southwark's primary care trusts performed well in their annual ratings, their budgets will be slashed and services hit.

Mr Hughes is spearheading the campaign to stop the cuts which will mean less cash spent across the services, with sexual health services the worst hit.

Last month he met with Ms Hewitt but said he was disappointed with the outcome.

During the heated Commons debate last week, Mr Hughes asked: "What changes in the budgets for 2006/07 for NHS trusts serving Lambeth and Southwark have been agreed?"

Ms Hewitt replied: "I asked NHS London to look again at budgets in Lambeth and Southwark. "It has confirmed that after other factors have been taken into account, Lambeth and Southwark primary care trusts were asked to contribute less to the London-wide risk reserves for this year than most other London PCTs."

Mr Hughes told the Commons he had thought that after meeting Mrs Hewitt a "fairer" allocation of money would be agreed.

He pointed out that despite Lambeth and Southwark being among the two most deprived boroughs in the country, an estimated £23million would be chopped from the budgets for Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley trusts.

However,the Secretary of State answered that Southwark and Lambeth would get the money back once the other badly performing London PCTs were up to speed.

Until then Lambeth and Southwark PCTs will have to continue to bail them out.

After the debate, Mr Hughes said:"I and the other South London MPs are upset that it appears the Government are refusing to budge on this."

Presumably both MPs Kate Hoey and Simon Hughes will be voting against the EU budget deal - a clear waste of billions of pounds a year of public money.

The government plans to give this money to an organisation that, for twelve years in a row, hasn't been able to get auditors approval for its accounts, while there's clearly not enough money to go around London's NHS trusts.

Blocking the EU budget deal and making this saving would be an obvious source of much more money than is needed to prevent these NHS cuts.

London: NHS trust to axe up to 150 posts

Up to 150 jobs are to be cut by an NHS trust after it was told to balance its books by the Department of Health - according to the BBC.

St George's Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs St George's Hospital in Tooting, south London, has been told to make an additional £10m of savings. The trust said services would be "unaffected" by the cuts, which will be mostly among administration staff.

Consultants' hours will also be cut to save £1.2m, which the trust says will prevent a further 60 job losses. The consultants are each being asked to reduce their work by two hours a week.

Mike Bailey, one of the trust's medical directors, said clinics would be unaffected as consultants were only being asked to cut their work on "administrative tasks".

A spokeswoman for the British Medical Association said: "It is hard to see how this will not affect patient care. We are concerned that patients will suffer."

St George's, which reported a deficit of £11.5m at the end of the last financial year, is the latest NHS trust to announce redundancies.