Phil Taylor

Yesterday saw the publication by the NHS of a health profile for Ealing.

A number of health issues emerge:

• significantly worse heart disease and stroke
• significantly worse diabetes
• significantly worse children’s tooth decay.

I understand that the first two of these are driven in large part by our Asian population (around 25%) who are particularly susceptible to these conditions. See references on heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Much of this early death is preventable and needs to be a priority.

We clearly need more dentists!

Dentists who can reduce problems such as tooth decay, tooth erosion and a lot more. Such instances call for dental implants. So click this link https://www.maestrosmiles.com/dental-implants/ to gain more insights on the same. On the other hand Ealing seems to be good for teenage pregnancy, binge drinking, healthy eating, obese adults, cancer, mental health treatment and drug misuse treatment.

Life expectancy in Ealing seems to be bang on the national average. The overall figure hides a lot of differences between wards. Northolt Mandeville, North Greenford, Perivale, Hanger Hill, Southfield and Northfield have significantly higher life expectancy than the English average. Southall Broadway, Norwood Green, Lady Margaret, Dormers Wells, Elthorne and South Acton have significantly lower life expectancy. The liberal consensus is that deprivation (you are poor) leads to health inequalities. Yes, but in Northolt West End we have a most deprived ward that turns out to have marginally higher than average life expectancy.

Last night the Health and Social Care Panel, one of Ealing Council’s scrutiny panels, heard John Bercow, Tory MP for Buckingham tear into Andrew Wray the Chief Exec of the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust. Bercow was pretty full-on, calling Wray “arrogant, incompetent and insensitive”. It was a very parliamentary style of attack. The Princes Room of the Town Hall with its peeling paint and strip lights did not quite provide a setting as grand as Bercow’s rhetoric.

The serious point of the evening was the closure by the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust of the Nuffield Speech and Language Unit which is effectively a day hospital run by the trust. It is in effect a nursery school too, where a small number of children with profound speech and language problems get intense therapy three times a day.

Ealing PCT and our council officers, and others like them across London who represent the potential users of the unit, subscribe to the “national strategy” which is that specialist units are anathema. The Royal Free is in a bind as they have to take the risk of a shortfall in pupils which forces them to subsidise the few kids who are enrolled at the Nuffield specialist unit.

We heard heartfelt testimony from parents and staff and the reason that Bercow was weighing in was that he has a young son, Oliver, who is a potential candidate.

It was clear to the panel that the consultation on possible closure by the Royal Free has been badly handled and should stop. We would like to see the threat of closure lifted for a year to give the parents and supporters some time to promote the institution. When consultation restarts it needs to consider closure against the idea of re-marketing the whole Nuffield concept.

If the Nuffield is to swim against the tide of inclusion orthodoxy then everyone associated with it needs to band together to ensure that a flow of candidates comes forward. They should not expect some Trust comms department to do this for them. They need to get out and do it for themselves and other like them. We can only afford diversity within public services if the public take some ownership for themselves.

Today the BBC covered the financial performance of the NHS. The overall deficit is around £500 million. The Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, tries to minimise this figure by making statements like: “The NHS is now stabilising this financial problem while continuing to improve services for patients.” Unfortunately, the current Labour Government is seriously mis-managing the NHS and it is hurting our Borough.

Last night the Ealing councillors on the Health and Social Care Standing Panel had a briefing from Ealing Primary Care Trust (PCT), the people who fund all our GPs, dentists and pharmacies. Both the chairman and chief executive were there. Robert Creighton, the Chief Executive, covered the financial aspects of the talk. This year they were hoping to make £5 million available for new community care initiatives. As a result of the current financial crisis in the NHS Ealing PCT’s entire budget was top sliced by 3% and instead of having £5 million to spend on new activities they were looking at taking £6 million out of their current spending plans.

Robert gave the impression of knowing his stuff and in the last year the PCT performed well financially turning in a small surplus of £2.1 million (the equivalent of 0.5% of their £441 million annual spending).

So although our PCT is well run we will suffer this year from the national crisis.