Last month, I wrote to the Chair of the Hillingdon Hospitals Trust, Matthew Swindells, about the Urgent Care Centre impact review that was promised prior to its closure.
I have now received a response, which doesn't seem to provide much detail and feels very much as though it's saying 'nothing to see here'. It says that early data suggests 'the transition has been safely managed, with no significant increase in waiting times' and references the indicators being used to monitor the impact of the Urgent Care Centre closure as 'patient attendances, waiting times, patient experience, and workforce implications'.
Patient experience stood out to me, particularly given what I have heard from residents who - since the end of September - have been required to use Hillingdon Hospital's A&E and the Pembroke Centre, and whose anecdotal feedback suggests that these services are not sufficiently filling the gap left by the closure at Mount Vernon.
In light of this, I have written a follow-up letter to ask for further clarity and detail on how the patient experience data is being collected. You can read both the response and follow-up letter below.
