成人快手

Accident and emergency

Emergency situation? Patients are concerned about services

Many of us believe that our local Accident & Emergency (A&E) is a vital and sacred service.

But as cash-strapped NHS trusts struggle to make savings, there聮s a very real chance that Londoners could lose the heart of their hospitals 聳 the accident and emergency department.

Five-year-old Rachel Atherton suffers from a rare genetic disorder which means she could stop breathing at any moment.

Chase Farm is her local A & E and it quite literally keeps her alive.

Her mum Michelle explains:

"She has two holes in her heart, she has weak muscles, bone laxity, she suffers with her chest, she's asthmatic. At the moment we're just having tests because she's got kidney problems as well."

"During the winter months between April and May we go to A & E around five or six times because of breathing problems. What happens is she can't move the phlegm from her throat so she chokes and stops breathing."

Rachel goes to A & E so often that her mum frequently takes her herself.

The main concern for Michelle is - "speed is of the essence because obviously if she's stopped breathing she needs to be resuscitated straight away and I need to get her there ASAP".

Speed matters

Research has shown it again and again, time and time, the faster you get a seriously ill emergency patient to hospital the better their chance of survival.

But the Trust at Chase Farm is considering scaling down A & E so that it becomes a minor injuries walk-in clinic.

Fears about health care - travel times are a huge concern

Emergencies and ambulance cases will have to go to the Trust聮s other A & E department in Barnet Hospital.

For local residents like Rachel and her Mum that's not a good prospect.

Chase Farm's A & E department is the busiest part of the hospital.

Each year more than 60,000 people are taken there.

If the alternative is Barnet it'll mean staff there will be overwhelmed with thousands more patients.

And a journey time that could take three times as long.

Fears for the future

Understandably Rachel's Mum is extremely worried by the proposals to move the A & E away from Chase Farm:

"Without that A & E my daughter聮s been given a death sentence because she might not get there in time. Or the ambulance may not get to Barnet聰.

Seventy five-year-old Irene Wilson also owes her life to the speed with which she was taken to Chase Farm A & E.

Is anyone listening? Irene Wilson outside number 10

Two years ago she was rushed to hospital with head and back injuries, "I tripped over next door's step and crashed down on the floor," she recalls.

"I injured five vertebrae on my spine and cracked my head on my car."

If her treatment had taken any longer, she could have suffered permanent brain damage.

She聮s grateful to the ambulance crew and hospital staff for the rapid treatment she received.

This has spurred her into action. She聮s doing all she can to fight for the A & E unit:

"If people higher up aren聮t going to do anything then I will".

Irene聮s been gathering support with a petition against a downgrading of A & E at Chase Farm. So far she聮s got 20,000 signatures behind her.

The bigger picture

She聮s not the only one concerned. Geoff Martin is chair of pressure group London Health Emergency.

For the last 22 years the group聮s been charting A & E closures across the country.

Since June 2005 three A & E departments have been hit, with predictions that as many as 30 could go, across the country, in coming years.

He identifies some of the hospitals that had A & E departments downgraded or moved, and stresses the problem that creates for all hospitals in and around the London area:

"Barts, Queen Mary's at Roehampton, Haroldwood, Ashford Hospital, Crawley Hospital. We all know what happens when you close A & E departments down it. It piles intolerable pressure onto neighbouring A & E departments which are ill equipped to cope."

He understands local residents' concerns: "You don't want to take that risk.

"You don't want to have to go somewhere where you might have to be moved on. Because that's adding minutes and that could be the difference between life and death."

Balancing the books

The Hospital Trust wants to improve the quality of the emergency services they provide.

Local groups are campaigning to maintain services

They want to concentrate specialists in emergency care all in one place. And that聮ll be in Barnet.

The Trust is right to be thinking seriously about how they organise themselves. Last year they were 拢22 million in the red and the pressure is on.

Although there's been no final decision made yet, the Trust's already met with the local campaigning group.

Spokesman Simon Weldon says they're taking the campaigns views very seriously:

"We've got to make sure we balance our books. All Trusts have got to do that. And we've also got to make sure that we can carry on developing and investing in our estate locally.

"Rebuild places like Chase Farm hospital so that patients have good quality environments in which to get the services that they need for the future. If people want improved health care, if they want improved quality of services, they have to work with us to help us organise those services so that care can be delivered."

Which gives Irene some hope that her petition will make all the difference: "it's not about the number of figures it's what people feel about Chase Farm".

And that includes those who work there. David Grace has been a consultant at the hospital for 18 years, and has some understanding of what happens when hospitals restructure.

"In a nutshell, once the A & E department has gone there tends to be a gradual winding down of the whole of the hospital often leading to closure."

And although cutting A & E is just one option the Trust is considering, Irene's determined to stop it.

As the final decision has not been made yet, she hopes her petition will make all the difference:

"I hope people in higher places will think about it not just ride over it. Consider the facts and figures - that people do need this A & E." Irene Wilson.

Geoff Martin of London Health Emergency thinks Irene's approach is just what's needed.

"It's crucial that people stand up and have a go back. The last thing you want to do is allow a bunch of unelected, unaccountable NHS bureaucrats to play games with your frontline health services.

"And I would urge anybody who finds that any aspect of their local healthcare is under threat of closure to stand up and be counted.

"I think people power in London is the answer. We've got fight back."

Links relating to this story:

The 成人快手 is not responsible for the content of external websites

----------------------------------------------------------------

Circus of horrors

Alternative circus - modern skills for the Circus of Horrors

Circus has changed considerably in this country over the years.

Gone are the big-top and the animals and in their place is a more modern take that owes more to Rocky Horror picture show than Barnum.

Sadie Nine met some unusual hopefuls at a rather strange audition and discovered that you don聮t have to be able to sing, dance or act to make it big in the circus ring these days.

London Based troupe The Circus of Horrors are always on the lookout for new talent, and this year they put an advert in the local job centre in Croydon and invited the public to come and have a go at an open audition.

Message in a bottle - Jackie in a tight fix!

Over 50 people turned up - magicians, singers, dancers and just plain show-offs. They all have one thing in common 聳 they all want to give up the rat-race and run away to join a circus.

Sadie sat with the judges to watch the performances. At the end of the auditions the judges make their decisions.

A week on from the auditions and Jackie Philips is back at her 9-5 job 聳 wondering how she got on. We follow her story.

Jackie takes a call at work. It聮s Dr Haze offering her a part in a try-out show that night.

It聮s a chance for her to see if the circus life is really for her.

Unbelievably Jackie now has only a few hours to learn a routine that will put her centre stage in front of a home crowd.

Fancy yourself as a circus act:

The Circus of Horrors is always looking for new performers so if you think you have something to offer, contact them at

Table Tennis

Hitting back at delinquency - Table Tennis is more than a sport

It聮s fast, flash and fun. London聮s teenagers can聮t get enough of it and you probably played it in your youth聟

Guessed yet? Yes, it聮s Table Tennis. Never to be called Ping Pong, but Ping is ok if you聮re really cool.

It聮s been played by London聮s kids in youth clubs, back gardens and on holidays since the 1920聮s.

Now it is experiencing a huge resurgence throughout the capital with some very different results.

Inside Out sent 成人快手 London聮s Gary Crowley, a former youth club player himself, to Morpeth School in Tower Hamlets to find out just what is going on.

The school employs ex-professional England player, Grant Solder, as their full time table tennis coach.

TTK is a London based charity that co-funds six schools across London to have full time table tennis coaches and the aim is not just to provide England with future world champions, but also to improve attendance and academic results.

The Headmaster of Morpeth School, Alasdair Macdonald, explains that the introduction of table tennis has given so much to the children.

"This is a deprived area, so the pupils are not always used to what excellence can be. We聮ve been able to get the kids to see that they can do something just as well as anyone else.

"Exam results and attendance have all improved. We now recognise that we have to get the kids wanting to be here in the first place. Table Tennis has been one of the best examples of an activity that has made a large number of kids engage with the school and all aspects of learning聟 "

Putting a new spin on Ping Pong - Gary Crowley reports

Morpeth School proves this theory works.

Children are allowed to miss certain lessons for one hour a week in order to play table tennis where they receive one to one coaching.

With the schools and the TTK charity working together, table tennis is a great way of reducing delinquency.

The results have been so positive in many London boroughs that Brent Police has contributed 拢12,000.

Inside Out considers the rise of table tennis and the suitability of the sport for London聮s kids.