Figures revealed by the London assembly reveal that Northwick Park hospital is struggling to cope with its current patient caseload. This is before the massive Tory government NHS hospital closure plan will massively increase the number of people using the hospital.
Only 84.3% of patients were seen in less than 4 hours. When other local A&Es are closed by the Tory-led government the number of patients for the hospital could potentially triple.
Cllr Julian Bell Labour leader of Ealing council said:
These figures demonstrate how dangerous the proposals to close 4 A&Es are. A&Es are already stretched to breaking point in a year round crisis. If we close A&Es it could seriously impair the safety of our health services and cost lives.
We have already seen the sad case of Muhammad Hashir Maveed in Enfield who died because he parents couldn’t get him to hospital. Statistics in the Standard showed that delayed transfers are up dramatically in North London with the number of people waiting in an ambulance because hospitals are full up over 700% at North Middlesex Hospital.We could be back to the bad old days of the last Tory government where people would have to wait 12 hours for A&E treatment.
Ealing Labour will fight these disastrous plans and campaign for local A&Es to stay open.