Unhealthy state of Camden’s health services
Congratulations to the CNJ’s journalist Tom Foot for his balanced full-page article (CNJ 6 August) on NHS Camden’s decision to appoint Care Limited the £20m contract to run the new Hampstead Road health centre, near Warren Street. For the second time, our un-elected borough health bureaucrats have taken a high-handed decision without full local consultation and appointed a commercial operator to run GP services for several thousands of Camden’s residents. I know first hand from my Councillor surgeries that, for example, United Health’s performance in operating the Camden Road practice has resulted in all original doctors having left and tales of chaos and dissatisfaction with the new service.
There’s a mismatch between what Camden NHS says and does. Currently, there’s a plausible, cleverly designed borough-wide consultation document “Primary and Urgent Care Strategy” (available as a download at: www.camden.nhs.uk/primary-and-urgent-care-strategy.htm). For example, it fudges the issue of Polyclinics by reporting that: “Our polyclinics will be systems not just buildings”. This consultation doesn’t close for two more months and yet at Page 11 the implication is that the selection process for Hampstead Road’s centre is ongoing and the first principle of selection is that the operator “will provide the best quality of service and care…”. I fail to see how the venture capital-backed commercial providers of nursing homes can possibly be justified as more qualified to do this than the alternative consortium of experienced local GPs, who will inevitably lose patients and be driven towards closure by outside operators of a fabulously equipped, publicly funded large new centre that’s due to open by Christmas.
Once again, Camden residents have every reason to be suspicious of our health service’s autocratic behaviour which let’s not forget, not so long ago threatened our excellent out-of-hours service CAMIDOC. When is NHS Camden’s top management going to engage properly with and listen to the community it serves?
have your say
