Cheshunt Community Hospital
A meeting of
the Broxbourne Health Forum on 11 August 2009 discussed progress
with the new Urgent Care Centre which is due to open at Cheshunt
Community Hospital in October. The meeting was attended by
Councillor Jeremy Pearce, Deputy Leader of the Borough Council.
The purpose of the Broxbourne Health Forum
group is to be a forum to scrutinise and keep a grip on healthcare
in this area. Among the members of the group are Linda
Tarpey, Chairman (ex non-executive board member of the Primary Care
Trust (PCT), Catherine Free (ex PCT, non-executive board member)
and Gordon Travis (ex patient and public involvement forum
member). Other representatives are Gill Hutchinson (Red Cross
Chairman and Chairman of Community Hospital Support Group) and Mary
Slevin (Chairman of Cruise and the Council for Voluntary Service
for Broxbourne). Linda Farrant is a serving PCT non-executive
member.
Representatives of the organisation chosen to
run the Urgent Care Centre were invited to the health forum
meeting. Dr Femi Idowu who represents Assura, and Debbie
Whittacker of North Herts NHS Trust attended (these are the
contractors which will run the Urgent Care Centre).
Councillor Pearce said: ‘The key challenges
facing the Urgent Care Centre are getting the people who
need the service through its doors and public recognition
that attendance at a full blown A&E will only be occasionally
required and that most ailments can be dealt with at an Urgent Care
Centre. For Cheshunt Community Hospital, the key aim is its
successful transformation into the local facility for dealing with
accidents and the everyday traumas which can happen to anyone -
rather than patients having to travel to a more distant A&E
centre’.
‘The Council will make sure that all
organisations the Council has contact with know and appreciate what
the Urgent Care Centre can provide. Council publications,
meetings and the neighbourhood fora will all be used to publicise
the facility and explain its potential. The Urgent Care
Centre will not open at Chase Farm until 2012, so there is an
opportunity for a head start here at Cheshunt.’
Councillor Pearce will discuss this facility at his next meeting
with Mr Charles Walker MP, who has always been a huge supporter of
the community hospital and now the Urgent Care Centre.
Councillor Pearce is the Borough Council’s lead member on health
matters. He represents the Broxbourne community on the
countywide health service Scrutiny Committee.