Hospital Open Letter From Kate Grimes Chief Ex

27 January 2010

Open Letter from the Chief Executive about the South West London Review

Dear Patients and Supporters of Kingston Hospital

Many of you coming to the hospital on Monday of this week may have picked up a Liberal Democrat flyer at Norbiton Station, or some of you will have seen the local papers’ websites or seen letters from politicians. Their theme, 'Save Kingston Hospital - Labour's secret plans to close Kingston Hospital A&E and Maternity Services' has raised concerns. I'm sure the rumours are already going around the hospital and the local community and I wanted to take the opportunity to allay any fears, especially for our patients or those planning to have their babies at Kingston.

The claims being made stem from the South West London review which is being conducted by our Primary Care Trusts which fund the hospital and who commission the care of local people through the various health providers in the region. Kingston Hospital’s own clinicians – consultants and doctors – are amongst nearly 100 other clinicians from across South West London who are working to identify how to improve the health and healthcare for local people.

The review aims to improve the quality of care for local people and looks at new ways of delivering care, such as providing better access to urgent care at hospital and in the community.

This work is at an early stage and has not considered any specific sites for changes to services or closure - nor have they agreed any numbers of hospitals that will be required to deliver A&E, maternity, complex surgery, critical care or specialist children’s care in future. The review, which is being co-ordinated by our local PCTs, will shortly publish the “case for change” and the outputs from the clinical working groups. The groups have been meeting since autumn of last year to look at the evidence for how the best healthcare is delivered and suggest how services in South West London might be changed to bring our services closer to best practice.

In the meantime, with the pending general election, all NHS hospitals within South West London have become more of a focus for the political parties. Unfortunately, I think this means we will see more of this over the next few months. I want to emphasise that Kingston Hospital is in exactly the same position as all the other district general hospitals in South West London.

There are no specific plans for change at Kingston Hospital and if any proposals for change to hospitals across South West London are made, I think we at Kingston are in a strong position. We have an excellent reputation for delivering high quality care to the local population. We have high quality buildings and some of the biggest and best performing departments in London and we have tremendous support from local people which we appreciate.

The Trust has issued the following statement:

“Kingston Hospital welcomes the debate on how healthcare provision is best organised in the future. Senior clinical staff have been working with NHS London on the South West London Review for some time now.
Kingston Hospital has provided the local community with excellent maternity and A&E provision for many years and we look forward to continuing to provide an increasingly enhanced service to our community in the future.”
In response to media requests, clinical directors of Healthcare for South West London, Dr Howard Freeman, Dr Martyn Wake and Gavin Marsh have said:

“Hospitals and PCTs are looking to improve all healthcare services in south west London but there are no proposals to close A&E or maternity units. Clinicians from across South West London are leading work to identify how we can improve the health and healthcare for local people. Clinicians believe we must improve the quality of care for local people and look at new ways of delivering care, such as providing better access to urgent care at hospital and in the community. This work is at an early stage and has not considered any specific sites for closure nor have they agreed any numbers of hospitals that will be required to deliver A&E, maternity, complex surgery, critical care or specialist children’s care.

“Clinicians will be considering possible solutions to the challenges facing the sector, including more babies, an older population and potentially more illness increasing demand for healthcare services, and we will refine these ideas working with clinicians, patients and other stakeholders over the coming months.”

Over the next few months, as the political debate rages, Kingston Hospital is relentlessly focus on our key priority – continuing to serve the local population, delivering high quality healthcare to our patients and their loved ones.

The PCT’s case for change for South West London may become available in the next few weeks and will, I imagine, be covered in the local media but I will try keep you updated as and when I hear and know more.

Yours sincerely

Kate Grimes
Chief Executive