Lewisham Hospital Public Consultation Meeting

The Sydenham Assembly Coordinator's Group and the Sydenham Society have arranged a Lewisham Hospital Public Consultation meeting at Sydenham School, Dartmouth Road starting at 7.30pm on Thursday 6 December. Dr Jane Fryer, Chief Medical Advisor to the Trust Special Administrator, will present the draft recommendations set out in the TSA report. Please come along to this public consultation meeting - the TSA will be bringing along the short video and consultation packs - so please make your views known through the feedback forms as well as asking questions, giving comments and offering any alternatives.

Petition by iPetitions

Bring some Christmas sparkle

Rather than buying a mass produced present for your loved one, why not make a lovely piece of silver for them?

In just three hours you will make one (or maybe two) of these lovely items under the watchful eye and guidance of experienced jeweller and university lecturer Paul Ravn. Depending on your ability, you will start with the twisted rope ring before moving on to the brooch or pendant. Make sure to get the ring size for your intended recipient before you come.

There will be two sessions on Saturday, 24 November.

The morning session (from 10am to 1pm) will be for anyone 8 years of age or older. Adults supervising children do not need a ticket unless they wish to make some jewellery themselves (which we would, of course, recommend). Maximum of two children under 18 per adult.

The afternoon session (from 2pm to 5pm) is currently for adults only.

Tickets are just £10.90 each, which includes tuition and the silver, and are available online at familysilver.eventbrite.co.uk for the morning session and adultsilver.eventbrite.co.uk for the afternoon session.

Terms and Conditions

• A minimum of 5 tickets must be sold for each session to proceed.
• Tickets are non refundable unless the event is cancelled
• Exact location will be disclosed once tickets are purchased.
• If there is insufficient demand, we reserve the right to open the afternoon session to families.

AGM - 22nd November

Forest Hill Society AGM
Thursday 22nd November - 7:30pm - Upstairs, The Hob (opposite Forest Hill station)

Join us to celebrate a tremendous year in the regeneration of Forest Hill and let us know what we should be doing in the next year. The Forest Hill Society has made a real difference and we would like you to consider joining our team to make stuff happen around Forest Hill. A small amount of time from more people would allow us to make even more of a difference to Forest Hill and Honor Oak.

Lewisham Hospital Threatened

The Forest Hill Society asked Dr Penelope Jarrett, a local GP and Forest Hill Society member, to provide a briefing on the TSA proposals for the closure of A&E services at Lewisham Hospital.

South London Healthcare Trust (SLHT) was formed in 2009 by the merger of 3 hospital trusts: Queen Mary Sidcup (QMS), Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) at Woolwich, and Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust, whose biggest hospital is the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) at Farnborough. The main reason for the merger was the year on year deficits they were accumulating, which by then had added up to a debt of £149 million. Sadly, the merger has not solved the problems, and SLHT continues to operate with a loss of over £1 million per week. It is predicted to have a further debt of £207 million by the end of this financial year. The total cumulative debt will be £356 million. This is on an annual income of about £440 million.

In July, the Secretary of State for Health appointed Matthew Kershaw as the first ever Trust Special Administrator (TSA). The SLHT Trust Board was dissolved, and the TSA is running the Trust, and developing proposals for the future. His draft proposals were published last week, and we have until midnight on 13th December (30 working days) to comment on them.

The full report is 84 pages long, and lists many failings within the SLHT including that it is the bottom 10% Trusts for A&E wait times, recent non-compliance with Care Quality Commission  standards (now improving) and high expenditure on temporary staff. The TSA says there is evidence of poor leadership, poor record keeping, and poor financial governance. The PFI contracts cost £70 million each year.

The proposals are presented under 6 headings. Unsurprisingly, the TSA suggests the hospital should be run more efficiently, outsource various services and lose many jobs, including 140 doctors. Less expected are the recommendations that the debt be written off, and some extra money be given to QEH and PRUH to cover some of the excess costs of the PFI. I think this is to be welcomed, but we do not know if the Department of Health will agree.

The TSA proposes the break-up of the SLHT, with the PRUH possibly taken over by Kings Healthcare partners, or put out to tender. The suggestions here are very vague.

The concerns for those of us in Lewisham are the detailed proposals for the Lewisham Healthcare NHS Trust, which is not even part of the SLHT. It should “join with” QEH, and Lewisham A&E should be downgraded to an urgent care centre. A&E itself is not particularly expensive, but patients who are admitted to hospital need emergency surgery, ITU, X-rays and scans...

The TSA suggests developing a centre for elective surgery at Lewishan, but even if you have elective in-patients, critical care services quickly become non-viable. This raises the question of whether is is safe to deliver babies at Lewisham, and so the TSA suggests closing the delivery ward. The future of children's services, which are particularly good at Lewisham, are not clear. The TSA points out that reduced services at Lewisham would mean that some of the land there could be sold off to raise money.

Unexpected consequences would include loss of the GP training scheme, which is based at the hospital. Many graduates of the scheme, such as myself, stay on to work in the area. Typically, GPs train in medicine, surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, A&E and mental health, so need a hospital site with all these departments.

Lewisham is a very well run hospital, which had a small deficit a few years ago, but it has worked to turn this into a surplus. In the last year they have opened a brand new A&E, costing £12 million, without using PFI. It works well with local GP commissioners and the council, and new collaborative pathways have been developed (e.g. musculoskeletal, memory service). All this is threatened: Lewisham commissioners will not be able to plan services for the people of Lewisham. There is also a real risk that instead of Lewisham Hospital improving the management of QEH, the link could ruin the finances at Lewisham.

It would seem that Lewisham is being penalised for not having a ruinous PFI contract!

The report does not contain enough information to convince me that the financial modeling is correct.  Is the TSA is assuming that the 70 people admitted each day to Lewisham Hospital will instead go to QEH?  The report claims it will only take residents of Lewisham an extra 14 minutes to reach QEH A&E by public transport. I think it will take longer.  I do not think that most people would go there anyway: as a GP I have spent the last 6 years asking patients which hospital I should refer them to. Only one person chose QEH!  If Lewisham were to close, I personally would go to Kings.  There are very significant questions about the capacity of Kings or QEH to cope with extra A&E attendances, and indeed with taking on the 4,500 babies that are currently delivered at Lewisham. Obstetric services throughout London are severely stretched, partly due to a huge increase in the birth-rate in the capital (Lewisham, schools are learning about this, as they have to build more classrooms) and partly due to a chronic shortage of midwives. The report says nothing about this, but I have heard many stories about how A&E and obstetrics at both Kings and QEH  are already struggling to cope.

There are a number of other areas of discussion in the report. I will briefly consider two general areas which the TSA uses as clinical arguments to support his proposals.

The first is the idea of care in the community, or in people's homes. This is generally thought to be a good idea, and many people would wish to be so supported. However, there is no good evidence that supporting unwell people at home is much cheaper than doing so in hospital: the nurses have to spend time travelling from one place to another, and monitoring someone's condition is difficult too, especially if they live alone. Sensible interventions do not always prevent admissions: I remember seeing an elderly lady who was unwell on a Friday. She had a urine infection, I prescribed the right antibiotics, and got the pharmacy to deliver them that day. But she was still admitted to hospital the next day by SELDOC as the infection made her confused and she was not remembering to take the antibiotics. Primary care is being cut in the same way as other parts of the NHS.  There are not really enough GPs, and certainly not enough district nurses or health visitors. We have been significantly understaffed in Lewisham for some years, and services are really struggling with the existing workload. It would require very significant up front investment before community services could even hope to make any real difference to hospital admission rates.

The second clinical area he refers to concerns consultant rotas, especially cover at nights and weekends, in A&E, medicine and obstetrics. There is reasonable evidence that having more senior staff, more involved in patient care, improves outcomes and reduces death rates somewhat. However, if you make people work at weekends, you have to give them time off during the week, thereby downgrading current weekday services, which might end up with the same number of deaths but just spread evenly during the week. Merging hospitals does not necessarily solve the problem, because you are then making one consultant responsible for more patients. Of the 70 patients admitted daily at Lewisham I would estimate that about 50 of them are medical patients. The on-call consultant can only spend a short time with each one as it is. The report actually refers to recommendations that each patient is reviewed twice in the first 24 hours. Assuming the consultant did not eat or sleep, and did not spend any time walking from one bed to the next, that is 14.4 minutes per patient review. This does not seem feasible! If you then merge hospitals and expect one consultant to cover double the number of patients, it quickly becomes ludicrous. You need more consultants!

I am aware that for many people arguments about health service policy can seem abstract and remote, but if you do nothing else I would urge you to consider where you would go if your felt you were seriously ill, and there were not A&E at Lewisham, and then tell the TSA about it.

To comment on the proposals go to www.tsa.nhs.uk. There you can read a summary of the proposals, and comment on the online response form.

Save Lewisham Hospital A&E

The Forest Hill Society supports the campaign to keep a fully functional A&E at Lewisham Hospital. To find out more about the campaign please visit http://www.savelewishamhospital.com/

You can support the campaign by signing the petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/lewisham-hospital/

Subway Closure

Next week will see the closure of the Forest Hill pedestrian Subway for major refurbishment. This is something that the Forest Hill Society has been asking for since our formation.

The aim of this work is to provide a dry, well-lit, safe, connection between the two sides of Forest Hill. The sides and ceilings will be clad and new lighting installed. Improvements to the steps will be made and handrails provided on the wall as well as centre.

During the next few months it is expected that the subway will be closed to pedestrians, with the alternative route via the South Circular. This will be inconvenient for many people, but will result in a much better subway for years to come.

Below are a few photos from the subway as it looks today.

Remember, remember the 4th of November - Forest Hill Food Fair

Music at Devonshire Road Nature Reserve - 27th October

Bring and Take Day at Dacres Wood

Sunday 28th October 2012 - 1.00 pm – 4.00 pm
DACRES WOOD RESERVE FIELD CENTRE, Dacres Road, SE23
(access via a Honeyfield Mews between Catling Close and Homefield House, near the junction of Dacres Road and Silverdale) see http://goo.gl/maps/0hPuf

Swap unwanted items for something you need – typical items include CDs, DVDs, small electrical items, bikes, lamps, plants, kitchenware, books, clothes, toys
ALL FOR FREE!!

Items should be in good condition and easy to carry home.

BRING ELECTRICAL ITEMS THAT NO LONGER WORK
There will also be a van for the collection of WEEE Waste – this is electronic waste that no longer works, eg broken kettles, hairdryers etc.


REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE

A Forest Hill Society event in conjunction with Friends of Dacres Wood Nature Reserve

Planting at Forest Hill and Honor Oak Park Stations - 20th October

Forest Hill Society are planning autumn bulb planting and general tidy-up for the areas we've planted in Forest Hill and Honor Oak Park on Saturday 20th October 2.00-4.00pm, meeting in the forecourt of Forest Hill Station and Honor Oak Park station for simultaneous planting at both stations!

Could you please let us know if you are likely to be available as it is very useful to have an idea how many people might be helping - email@foresthillsociety.com

We hope to see you on the 20th October, with gardening gloves, and if you can bring secateurs, trowel and a spare plastic bag. Many hands make light work - and it's fun!

Food Fair - 7th October 2012

Mouth Almighty Book signing

Local author Salihah Agbaje will be signing copies of her play, Mouth Almighty, on Saturday, 29 September 2012 at Sugar Mountain on Dartmouth Road from 11:30am.

Mouth Almighty is a magical yet cautionary tale of a young boy’s curiosity. Set in an ordinary town, 11 year old Justice is a typical boy with an inquisitive mind, mischievous nature and an unusually big mouth. When boredom kicks in, an invitation from a strange, yet fascinating man, leads him to the lair of a mad scientist and a truly unforgettable experience. Mouth Almighty is a splendid mix of important lessons, humour and sparkling imagination that is certain to get young minds racing.

Salihah Agbaje is an actress, television presenter and drama tutor who has always loved writing and started off as a youngster writing poetry and performing it for private audiences. A lively and avid performer onstage and off, it was no surprise that Salihah took up Performing Arts A-Levels alongside English Literature and Language. She later went on to study at university and holds a BA in Media Performance.

Salihah’s Theatre in Education Company; Spoken World Productions was established in 2009. Salihah has been leading her team of performers and tutors around South London holding previews of the play Mouth Almighty. The drama workshops are based around important issues children may encounter including bullying, stranger danger and the values of keeping good friendships.

Storytelling in Forest Hill - Saturday 6th October

Forest Hill goes Totally Locally

Forest Hill Traders will launch Totally Locally, the award-winning shop local campaign, in Forest Hill on Saturday 22 September with a day of "Totally Locally Fiver Fest" deals - a mini shopping festival for the town where participating shops will have a special £5 offer. This is planned to coincide with the official opening of Forest Hill pools.

Deals on offer will include:

• Any Totally Awesome 12 inch pizza for a Fiver at Question Bar
• A Totally Beautiful Bunch of Flowers for a Fiver at Laurels Florist
• A Totally Bootylicious Fiver deal on a selection of knickers at The Fitting Studio
• A Totally Brilliant offer of three cards for a Fiver at B cards
• A Totally Campervantastic free camper van book with any store purchase at Campervantastic
• A Totally Cool free pair of Children's Disney Character Sunglasses when you spend over £5 on the children's character range at Marie's Boutique
• A Totally Crackers £5 deal on a selection of takeaway meals at Tse's Chinese
• A Totally Dappy £5 off your purchase when you spend £15 or more at Dapper
• A Totally Dazzling £5 Jewellery festival plus £5 off all purchase over £50 at Doopo Doopo
• A Totally Edible 6oz Burger with Fries for a Fiver at lunch and dinner at All Inn One
• A Totally Fabulous voucher for £5 off any hairdressing or spray tan service over £25 at Mirror Mirror. (One per customer and not to be used in conjunction with any other promotion or discount. To be used before October 31st)
• A Totally Gobstoppering 100g bag of sweets free at Sugar Mountain when you spend a Fiver
• A Totally Gorgeous offer of buy any 2 items and get the 3rd for £5 (*cheapest item) with a free glass of bubbly upon entry at Best of Both Boutique
• A Totally Herbally 4 herbs for a Fiver (normally £1.69 each) at Shannon's Garden Centre
• A Totally Hilarious 2 tickets for a fiver for the comedy on Sept. 22nd at 9pm for at The Hob. That's a saving of £8
• A Totally Magnificant £5 off with every £20 spent, plus free Victorian themed sweets and beverages served all day at Bunka
• A Totally Potty choice of panini from the Totally Locally Menu with any drink and a home made brownie for a Fiver at The Teapot
• A Totally Proper pint or a Pimms with a pancake for a Fiver at Canvas and Cream
• A Totally Radical £5 off all purchases over £50 at Finches Ski and Bike
• A Totally Relaxing Coffee and a Sandwich for a Fiver at Aga's Little Deli
• A Totally Satisfying Half Dipped Beef Sandwich and a drink for a Fiver at Sylvan Post. There will also be a carnival atmosphere with live bands and prizes, cocktails and capers
• A Totally Spicy £5 off eat in meal between 5.30-7.30 pm at Thai Orchard
• A Totally Staggering £10 worth of haberdashery for a Fiver, or a 'mind-Bowing' £5 off any workshop booked on the day at Stag and Bow
• A Totally Tropical and Delicious selection of medium meat and vegetarian dishes for a Fiver at Black Hummingbird
• A Totally Watchable 3 DVDs for a Fiver at For Your Eyes Only

Shoppers will be able to collect a map showing the location of the offers from the Totally Locally stall at the official opening of Forest Hill Pools.

Forest Hill is the latest of many towns across the UK to take up the Totally Locally campaign. This free initiative supports Forest Hill's traders to show the value of local shopping and its benefits for the local economy. Many of the shops, businesses and stalls will have special offers - highlighting Totally Locally's message that if everyone in Forest Hill spent just £5 a week in their local independent shops, it would bring an extra £3.5 million into the town's economy every year.

"This is a chance for locals to discover Forest Hill's great shops and businesses, and the real difference they make to our town," said Totally Locally organiser, Serge Sumerling. "Many of my customers have often told me how much of a thriving place Dartmouth Road once was, with butchers, green grocers, fishmongers, you name it along it"...."You could say there's a bit of a buzz on the street right now and local residents both old and new, are taking a real interest in what's happening and want to be a part of it. I guess we want to find a way to celebrate all the good things happening and to help put Forest Hill back on the map. There are so many people in Forest Hill who really care about their town, are proud of its heritage and want to be a part of its bright future. I'm just one of them... to me its London's Hidden Gem that just needs a little dusting off!

"The launch at the Pools opening is one of many events we have planned this year. It’s all about appreciating and celebrating what we have here on our doorstep.

"Totally Locally has had a big impact on the towns that have run the campaign. We are confident that it can do the same for Forest Hill. We have a wealth of wonderful shops here and Totally Locally will highlight the hidden gems right on our doorstep," continued Serge.

"Totally Locally celebrates all local businesses, from Forest Hill's florists to accountants, from clothes shop to gift shops", said Nigel Goddard from Totally Locally. "These small businesses support many other local businesses, which keep the local economy alive. It’s what the whole fabric of a town like this is built on. The stronger the local economy, the better it is for the whole town".

"Totally Locally isn’t anti-supermarket or anti-internet", said Totally Locally founder, Chris Sands. "There is a place for all these things in our lives. It’s just highlighting how a small change in spending habits can make a huge change to Forest Hill. We have a choice to make the place we live that little bit better by just diverting £5 of our weekly spend back into our local economy. And everyone wants their town to be great, don’t they?!".

For more information about Totally Locally visit their website at www.totally-locally.co.uk/foresthill/

Parking on your street

Lewisham are consulting about the future of parking in the Borough.

The contract with NCP is up for renewal next year and so they are seeking people's views on how parking should be managed throughout the Borough. This applies to car parks, on street parking and controlled parking zones.

It is really important to feed your views in to the council as this could affect parking policy for the next 10 years or more.

One option under consideration is for the whole Borough to become a controlled parking zone. This would simplify things for Lewisham, may enable the introduction of noon - 2 pm parking restrictions as well as prevent distant commuters from parking on the road by the stations. However, it would probably not solve the parking problem near stations as many local residents drive to the station so that they can get to child care or similar commitments on their return.

The Campaign for Better Transport's (CBT) recent annual study of car dependency in British cities found that London is the least car-dependent city in the UK. Fewer and fewer people feel the need to own a car, and with most of the new homes being built next to transport hubs (another CBT recommendation) per capita car ownership is likely to experience another big drop, reinforcing the downwards long-term trend for car ownership per capita in inner London. The question is whether this trend wlll beat the predicted population growth and inevitably increase pressure on parking space on Lewisham's roads.

The parking survey can be completed online, or hard copies can be picked up at libraries, housing offices, the parking shop and access point.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL COMPLETED QUESTIONNAIRES MUST BE RECEIVED BY THE COUNCIL NO LATER THAN 5PM ON FRIDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 2012.

Forest Hill Pool is Open!

Dacres Wood Open Day

Planning Application: Miriam Lodge

The Forest Hill Society has written to object to the planned development of Miriam Lodge on Dartmouth Road.

The plans can be viewed on the council website and include the increase from 125 to 186 hostel places for homeless people with the addition of a six story extension to Miriam Lodge.

The Forest Hill Society have a number of concerns relating to:

• The size of the new building in relation to neighbouring properties
• Potential impact on crime and anti-social behaviour
• Overlooking from rooms in the old and new buildings
• Inappropriate density of development
• Loss of amenity space for existing residents

A full copy of the objection can be read here.

Aga's Little Deli Grand Opening

We are delighted to announce that Aga's Little Deli will be the first stall from our Food Fair to move in to permanent premises.

Aga signed the lease to 49 Dartmouth Road (next to Question Bar) on 7 July and will be throwing open the doors to her new Deli and Cafe at noon on Sunday, 16 September.

There will be many, many tasty surpises in store including an oyster bar and lovely argentinian wine, cheese, olives, bread and many more delicacies. Take your friends with you and welcome this wonderful addition to our town centre. They will be there till 9pm, but go early to make sure you are not disappointed.

Rest assured that Aga will be at our next Food Fair as well and we are working with other stall holders to find them premises. Hopefully Aga will be the first of many stallholders to fill our vacant shops.

Forest Hill Pools pass final milestone

Lewisham Council have finally taken possession of the new leisure complex on Dartmouth Road and Fusion Lifestyle were given the keys on Tuesday.

We have been reluctant to post any updates recently given previous false starts, but the final fit out of the gymnasium and other areas now begins in earnest so that the pools can be opened before the official opening on Saturday 22 September.

There will be a day long feast of entertainment, activities and fun throughout the area. While Forest Hill Pools will be one of the main focus areas with taster sessions, tours of the new facility, exhibitions and more, there will be other activities going on.

Forest Hill Library will have a Victorian theme, with story telling sessions, the chance to record your memories of Forest Hill in days gone by and some creative writing opportunities. There will be entertainers throughout the day, traditional Victorian board games and free Victorian sweets.

The day will also be a chance to find out more about the Portas Pilot - an initiative to help regenerate the area and drop in on Sydenham School as they celebrate their 95th anniversary.

Forest Hill Traders will be launching their "Totally Locally" campaign (more on this later). Havelock Walk's artists will also have their amazing original art and design on display.

Truly a day with something for everyone.