Given the stories last year of Northwick Park Hospital having the highest A & E waiting times across the country I know many residents are concerned about how our local NHS in Harrow will be able to cope during winter.
The first thing to say is to recognise the amazing work our doctors, nurses and all staff across our NHS do day in day out. All this hard work is in the climate of our local heath service being severely underfunded compared to other parts of London, and across the country.
On top of the healthcare provided by the NHS, Harrow Council also spends over £50m each year on healthcare, transport, and respite care, amongst other support, for older people, people with a disability and their carers.
We do much of this work in partnership with the local NHS. As I’m sure many residents can appreciate, with both Harrow Council and our local NHS receiving disproportionately smaller budgets compared to other parts of London - on top of the £83m of cuts imposed on us - it’s becoming harder than ever to provide the healthcare that residents should expect.
However, we aren’t taking these cuts and insufficient funding settlements lying down.
With neighbouring councils we have formed an Independent Healthcare Commission to look at the re-organisation of the NHS in North-West London. The results were damming; with over £35m spent on consultants and the potential closure of two hospitals just some of the damaging findings.
We will be taking our findings to government to ensure that the changes they want to make to our NHS are value for money and mean that none of our residents are put at risk from the squeezing of NHS budgets and cuts to Harrow Council.
