Accident and Emergency Waiting Times

Debate between Gareth Thomas and Barry Gardiner

Wednesday 5th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Barry Gardiner (Brent North) (Lab)]

As my hon. Friend knows, Northwick Park is just in my constituency and we share that border. Does he agree that whatever the future configuration of hospitals in north-west London, it is absolutely essential that the A and E unit at Northwick Park is expanded to cope and that that should happen before any reconfiguration?

[Mr Thomas]

rose—

Northwick Park Hospital

Debate between Gareth Thomas and Barry Gardiner

Tuesday 22nd June 2010 Westminster Hall

[Mr Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am grateful for the opportunity to raise the future of Northwick Park hospital on the Floor of the House today. Although I have no financial interest to declare, I should declare that the hospital has looked after me and my family and friends at many points in my life, dealing with things ranging from running injuries through to dislocated shoulders as a result of canoeing accidents. I continue to be extremely grateful to the staff of Northwick Park hospital. Although no speech in the House could ever be regarded as anything other than political, I hope that this one will at least be judged to be not partisan. I have sought to give the Minister and my parliamentary neighbours notice of the issues that I intend to raise. I see in their places my hon. Friend the Member for Brent North (Barry Gardiner) and my immediate neighbour, the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman).

Northwick Park hospital is the primary hospital serving my constituents. Mount Vernon and the Royal National Orthopaedic hospitals are nearby, but Northwick Park sees the vast majority of work involving Harrow NHS hospital patients. I want to raise with the Minister four issues: the case for capital investment for the rebuilding of the hospital; the ongoing revenue budget of the hospital; the hospital’s move towards foundation hospital status; and whether the hospital will be designated as a major acute centre for north-west London.

The hospital is 40 years old, having been opened by Her Majesty the Queen in 1970. It has a certain celebrity status, having featured in, for example, the Channel 4 comedy “Green Wing”, in “Prime Suspect” and—I suspect this will worry my constituents a little—in the 1970s horror film “The Omen”. More recently, the hospital merged in 1994 with St Mark’s hospital, a national centre that is world renowned for gastrointestinal medicine. Northwick Park is also home to the British Olympic Association’s Olympic Medical Institute and, together with Central Middlesex hospital, forms part of the North West London Hospitals NHS Trust.

Northwick Park is in general extremely well run. After 13 years of substantial investment in the NHS, I now rarely receive complaints about the quality of care at Northwick Park. Its mortality rate—a crucial indicator of quality—shows Northwick Park to be one of the best hospitals in the UK. I pay tribute to its current management team and the trust board for a job that I think they are doing well.

The hospital provides a range of services that straddle acute and community care. It also provides a large range of important regional services, including maxillofacial services for all of north-west London and parts of the NHS Eastern and South Central regions; a neuro-rehabilitation medical in-patient centre for NHS London and the east of England; bowel cancer screening; clinical genetics; and a dedicated infectious diseases centre. If it is not the largest acute hospital in north-west London as a whole, it is certainly the largest in outer north-west London. It has a very busy accident and emergency department, is a key part of the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust trauma network and, crucially, was recently designated as one of eight hyper-acute stroke units in London. The decision to have an acute stroke unit there enabled the hospital to take a significant step towards formally securing designation as a major acute centre for north-west London. First, therefore, I formally ask the Minister, can he confirm that a journey that the hospital has been on towards designation as a major acute centre is complete and that crucial status has been secured?

Secondly, the trust board has faced and still faces a challenging financial picture, in part, as I understand it, because of the level of usage of the Central Middlesex site. The trust has succeeded in meeting many of its financial targets, but has faced pressure in part because of the impact of the polyclinic model of care and, more generally, the steady move of out-patient services from hospital settings into the community. I should make it clear that my constituents and I are strong supporters of the Rayners Lane polyclinic, run by the excellent Ridgeway Surgery group of GPs. Can the Minister confirm that there will be no cuts to Government funding for NHS London or, crucially, to NHS Harrow—the chief although not the exclusive source of funding for the hospital? Can he set out to the House how he sees the hospital’s financial future?

[Barry Gardiner (Brent North) (Lab)]

I applaud my hon. Friend for securing the debate and for all the remarks that he has made. Does he share my concern that we should hear from the Minister about the business case for £23 million that has been presented to the Department for a series of essential works as a result of the Arup review in 2009? Does he agree that it would be extremely helpful if the Minister could give us some indication about the outcome of that to settle the minds of our constituents?

[Mr Thomas]

I certainly agree with my hon. Friend. That maintenance work is essential, as I shall come on to say, and it would certainly be good to hear the Minister’s reaction to that bid.

The third and most important of the issues that I shall raise today relates to the issue alluded to by my hon. Friend—the case for additional investment out of the NHS’s capital budget for the redevelopment of the hospital. A fire in the hospital’s basement in February last year led to the trust board commissioning a report into the maintenance situation at Northwick Park. It recommended up to £65 million of improvements to the infrastructure on the site to ensure that it remains fit for purpose. Indeed, on the basis of annual NHS estate returns, the trust has one of the largest backlogs of maintenance in London. It has been clear for a considerable time that a major redevelopment process is required.

In November 2004, a strategic outline case for redevelopment of the whole site was approved, and private finance initiative credits of more than £300 million were made available the following March. However, redevelopment did not start, on the grounds of the project’s affordability. Various reviews of the PFI project, all crucially linked to an ongoing debate about levels of usage of both hospitals in the trust and therefore likely levels of income, have not yet led to enough clarity about how redevelopment of the hospital might proceed. I believe that it was not until February 2009 that the PFI project was formally cancelled.

There has been and remains, in my view, little doubt that major redevelopment of the whole site is required. Indeed, senior figures in NHS London have consistently accepted the need for a major rebuild. There is unfinished business on the redevelopment of the hospital. I therefore ask the Minister, does he accept that the case for a rebuild is strong, and on what timeline does he envisage such a redevelopment taking place?

To be fair, the NHS has certainly not ignored Northwick Park. There has been significant capital investment in clinical and IT equipment; in reducing the backlog in maintenance and ward refurbishments, particularly in refurbishing maternity services; in a new children’s centre and paediatric accident and emergency; in oral maxillofacial services; in bowel cancer screening; and, as I mentioned, in the new stroke unit. Indeed, more than £85 million of capital investment has been put into Northwick Park since 2005. There have also been more than 300 extra staff at Northwick Park, the bulk of them clinical, since 2005. However, the need for capital investment remains.

I should make it clear that I remain a very strong supporter of foundation hospital status. Its governance model will, I think, help to bring the hospital closer to those who use it. The mutual element of foundation hospitals has long been championed by the Co-op party, of which I am lucky enough to be the chair. In particular, I welcome the role of the board or council of governors that foundation hospitals have. The council of governors comes from staff, patients and members of the public and from other local nominating partner organisations, who together form a local membership base for such hospitals and can introduce a hugely important local level of accountability into NHS decision making. They also help to draw local people closer to what can sometimes seem a remote, albeit local, institution. There are other benefits to foundation hospital status, but it is that greater access to senior figures within the hospital, and therefore the greater sense of ownership of their local hospital, that will be of most long-term benefit to my constituents.

I therefore ask lastly of the Minister, when will my constituents be able to sign up to become members of the North West London Hospitals NHS trust? I have welcomed the opportunity given to me by the Speaker to put an issue of profound concern to my constituents before the House, and I look forward to the hon. Gentleman’s response.