Health

Bridge Dental Practice, which serves 8,000 patients, could relocate from a first floor office in Northolt Road to a ground floor former health and beauty boutique just along the road due to the problems of access for less mobile customers at its current location.
Harrow Council's planning committee approved yesterday evening the change of use of the vacant shop at 271 Northolt Road after hearing two petitions in support of the plans were received containing 69 and 84 signatures respectively

A MOTHER who gave birth to her NINTH child at one minute past midnight on Christmas Day said the new arrival was "the best present I could have had".

Nora Mongan, 31, of Lucas Avenue, South Harrow, brought daughter Stacey Marie into the world on December 25 at Northwick Park Hospital in Watford Road, Harrow.

SPORTS facilities at the new Whitmore High School in Porlock Avenue in West Harrow
could stay open to the public longer if a change to its planning permission is approved by Harrow Council.
The current restrictions are 7am to 10pm on weekdays and 9am to 9pm on weekends but the school wishes to extend this to 11pm on Fridays and to 9pm on Saturdays.

A MOTORCYCLIST suffered a head injury after coming off his machine in Ashbourne Avenue on Tuesday.
The crash occurred at 12.15pm and the rider was taken by London Ambulance Service to Northwick Park Hospital in Watford Road, Harrow, for treatment.

SMOKERS aged between 35 and 55 from Roxeth, Hatch End, Wealdstone, Harrow Weald, Marlborough and Roxbourne wards are invited to take part in a confidential discussion tomorrow about local services to help them kick the habit.
The women's session takes place between 3pm and 5pm and the men's between 6pm and 8pm, and participants will be paid £20 for their time.
Contact Stephanie O'Grady to sign up on 0207 403 2230, 07981 066331 or email stephanie@forster.co.uk

ALEXANDRA Avenue Health and Social Care Centre has won a bid to run a sexual health pilot project which will compliment the existing GUM (genitourinary medicine) Clinic at Northwick Park Hospital in Watford Road, Harrow.
The polyclinic in Alexandra Avenue will offer screening for sexually transmitted diseases including HIV and chlamydia, family planning and outreach services.

FOREIGN secretary David Miliband visited South Harrow today to bolster Labour colleague Gareth Thomas' re-election campaign.
The cabinet minister joined the MP for Harrow West in speaking to staff and pupils at Roxbourne First and Middle Schools in Torbay Road before touring Alexandra Avenue Health and Social Care Centre in Alexandra Avenue, one of the first five polyclinics in London and run by The Ridgeway Surgery in conjunction with seven other practices.

Addicts in desperate need of treatment may revert to crime if health bosses carry out plans to hand responsibility for drug treatment programmes to private firms.

That is according to a senior source at Harrow Primary Care Trust (PCT), who says plans are in the pipeline to commission out the services in a bid to cut costs - raising fears the quality of the provision will be compromised.

The whistleblower approached the Observer because of growing concerns that drug users will no longer get the attention they desperately need and that drug-related crime could rise as a result.

The source said: "If all the services are put out for tender it is likely that voluntary groups will run substance misuse programmes for a lot less money.

"These services do offer decent treatment, of course, but they have a history of having lower standards because they don't have to meet the same government criteria.

"Because of this they are not required to hire staff with greater qualifications and are therefore, comparatively, less qualified to deal with these vulnerable patients."

If these plans do go ahead, the doctor says staff who currently work within the service will be moved or redeployed, not necessarily within the same field, and crucial relationships with users will be lost.

They added: "Statistics show that the best kind of treatment for drug users comes when they deal with the same person on a regular basis.

"If staff are moved around, this rapport will be lost and, therefore, so will the effectiveness of the treatment.

"If this happens then more drug users face failing to deal with their problems and potentially there will be higher levels of crime in the area."

The medic added that at present there are seven programmes set to go out to tender, used by 642 people, according to the latest figures - many of them for the use of drugs like heroin and crack cocaine.

Campaigners will launch a protest against proposed NHS budget cuts next week - which have left hundreds of hospital workers facing the axe.

It was announced last week that North West London Hospital Trust, which runs Northwick Park and St Mark's Hospitals in Harrow, as well as Central Middlesex Hospital in Park Royal, will have it's annual budget slashed by as much as £32million.

Protesters are concerned the 10 per cent cut will be too great a burden on hospitals like Northwick Park and are worried sacking staff will put lives at risk.

Spokeswoman for action group Campaign to Defend Brent Healthcare Services Sarah Cox hopes thousands will come out to voice their concerns, when they protest on Valentine's Day at Central Middlesex Hospital.

She said: "The cuts being proposed are a massive worry to everyone. If redundancies are made to frontline staff or adequate training can no longer be afforded to all workers then standards will obviously slip.

"Standards of care are barely reaching acceptable levels as it is and hospitals like Northwick Park have hardly had the best publicity in recent times.

"Taking away invaluable funds won't help the current situation."

Although it is not clear how many of the 4,200 strong workforce will be axed at this stage, trust boss Fiona Wise said: "As pay accounts for a large proportion of costs we will be looking at making some changes to our workforce."

The chief executive's own salary is £160,000 a year.

She added: "We will be reassuring staff there are ways in which this can be done without making large-scale redundancies, such as through natural turnover, redeployment, flexible retirement, voluntary reduction in hours, controlling expenditure of temporary staff, flexible working and reducing sickness.

"We cannot rule out reductions in the number of posts but specific details (where and how many) have not been decided as yet.

"Any redundancies would be considerably less than 400, it will always be a last resort."

Branch secretary of Unison, the largest union for hospital workers, Peter Nzekwe, said: "To be honest, the news came as a massive shock to me.

"Everybody is nervous about their futures but at the moment we just have to wait and see what happens."

Members of Unison and Campaign to defend Brent healthcare services will stage their protest from 12 noon at Central Middlesex Hospital on February 14.

Campaigners will launch a protest against proposed NHS budget cuts next week - which have left hundreds of hospital workers facing the axe.

It was announced last week that North West London Hospital Trust, which runs Northwick Park and St Mark's Hospitals in Harrow, as well as Central Middlesex Hospital in Park Royal, will have it's annual budget slashed by as much as £32million.

Protesters are concerned the 10 per cent cut will be too great a burden on hospitals like Northwick Park and are worried sacking staff will put lives at risk.

Spokeswoman for action group Campaign to Defend Brent Healthcare Services Sarah Cox hopes thousands will come out to voice their concerns, when they protest on Valentine's Day at Central Middlesex Hospital.

She said: "The cuts being proposed are a massive worry to everyone. If redundancies are made to frontline staff or adequate training can no longer be afforded to all workers then standards will obviously slip.

"Standards of care are barely reaching acceptable levels as it is and hospitals like Northwick Park have hardly had the best publicity in recent times.

"Taking away invaluable funds won't help the current situation."

Although it is not clear how many of the 4,200 strong workforce will be axed at this stage, trust boss Fiona Wise said: "As pay accounts for a large proportion of costs we will be looking at making some changes to our workforce."

The chief executive's own salary is £160,000 a year.

She added: "We will be reassuring staff there are ways in which this can be done without making large-scale redundancies, such as through natural turnover, redeployment, flexible retirement, voluntary reduction in hours, controlling expenditure of temporary staff, flexible working and reducing sickness.

"We cannot rule out reductions in the number of posts but specific details (where and how many) have not been decided as yet.

"Any redundancies would be considerably less than 400, it will always be a last resort."

Branch secretary of Unison, the largest union for hospital workers, Peter Nzekwe, said: "To be honest, the news came as a massive shock to me.

"Everybody is nervous about their futures but at the moment we just have to wait and see what happens."

Members of Unison and Campaign to defend Brent healthcare services will stage their protest from 12 noon at Central Middlesex Hospital on February 14.