6:55pm Tuesday 23rd March 2010
By David Lindsell
This article appeared in the Surrey Comet on March 19, 2010
The woman in charge of reorganising the face of healthcare across London said lives will be saved by a mix of centralising specialist services like A+E and providing more routine care in polyclinics and walk-in centres.
But Ruth Carnall, chief executive of NHS London, admitted the "radical" changes were controversial and NHS London and the Primary Care Trusts which are driving the changes needed to persuade patients of the benefits.
She told a committee of London Assembly members on Tuesday evening there was only one area where a formal public consultation on "reconfiguration" was taking place - north east London - but they wanted to move with "much greater pace and ambition."
She said: "All of the other things you might hear about in newspapers or hear about in petitions are speculative in terms of whether it turns out to be a concrete proposal."
The positive side of getting clinicians together - 98 in south west London - was they could talk about the "right changes" but the downside was "people latching onto the worst possible scenario".
Paul Baumann, NHS London director of finance, repeated that the NHS would be a £4bn to £5bn deficit by 2016 unless changes like diverting people from A+E was carried out.
NHS London insist the changes - which are most far down the line in north east London where A+E services are being downgraded at hospitals - are better for patients and not about cuts, but Labour MPs have joined Tories and Lib Dems there in opposition to the proposals.
Mrs Carnall said of specialist services: "We know we can save people’s lives by centralising those."
But she conceded: "It’s all very controversial. Our challenge is to convince people that this is the right way to receive their healthcare and to implement it quickly."
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