Expert to health check NHS report
Published 19 September 2012
Ealing Council has engaged a former NHS chief executive to carry out an independent review of controversial proposals for hospital services in the area.
Timothy Rideout, has also produced a report for Hammersmith & Fulham Council on the controversial plans that, if agreed, will see four out of nine A&Es in the area close and Ealing Hospital downgraded to a ‘local hospital’, stripping it of nine of the 11 major types of service.
Mr Rideout has been employed in a variety of senior health roles, both as chief executive of a primary care trust and more recently at the Department of Health. He is working alongside other experts who will forensically examine the NHS’s business case used to support these proposals.
They will look in detail at the impact of the plans on local people’s health as well as assumptions made by the NHS around transport times and finances. A team of council officers led by the council’s chief executive is also supporting the review team’s work.
The independent report will be delivered at the beginning of October and will form part of the council’s official response to the NHS consultation which is set to close on 8 October.
Councillor Jasbir Anand, cabinet member for health and adult services, said: “If these plans go ahead our local hospital services will be annihilated. Mr Rideout is a highly-respected health professional and the work he and his team are doing will enable the council to properly scrutinise the NHS’s proposals and respond to the consultation on behalf of our residents.
“From speaking to people I know, many have been put off filling in the NHS consultation document because it is long, jargon-ridden and forces people to answer leading questions designed to support the proposal. If this was a true consultation people should have been given the opportunity to answer ‘none of the above’.”
People interested in finding out more about the proposals and what they mean for local health services are invited to attend a debate between NHS North West London and the Save Our Hospitals campaign. The event will be held at Ealing Town Hall on Wednesday 26 September at 7pm.
All political parties on Ealing Council oppose the proposals and councillors are urging anyone who lives or works in the borough to get behind the campaign to Save Our Hospitals by signing a petition and responding to the NHS consultation.