Three hospitals warn NHS chiefs against closing North Middlesex A&E

Three major hospital trusts have warned NHS chiefs of the catastrophic consequences of allowing a crisis-hit north London A&E to close, it was claimed today.

The Royal Free, University College London Hospitals and Barts Health are understood to have outlined the chaos that would be caused to emergency admissions across north London if North Middlesex’s failing casualty department was shut.

Today it was reported that North Middlesex, which sees up to 500 A&E patients a day, was at risk of having its junior doctors withdrawn by Health Education England because of the inadequacy of the training they were receiving.

This could force the department to close its doors.

Joan Ryan, Labour MP for Enfield North, said the three trusts had outlined their concerns at an emergency summit on May 25 to discuss the dire state of emergency care at North Middlesex, in Edmonton.

She told the Standard that neighbouring hospitals such as Barnet General, the Royal Free and Whipps Cross were already too busy to cope with patients unable to be treated at North Middlesex.

Ms Ryan, who was aiming to raise the issue in Parliament today, said: “This is an absolute crisis for Enfield and Haringey, but it has national implications as well. This is the first hospital to arrive at this point, but there are quite a few others on the same path.”

The country’s top emergency doctor also warned of the dire consequences of closing the department. Dr Clifford Mann, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “In London, if the North Middlesex were to close tThe implications for surrounding trusts would be overwhelming.”

The college said the problems at North Middlesex were “symptoms of systemic failure, not mismanagement at local level”, with A&E performance at record low levels and most departments having unfilled doctor and nurse vacancies.

Last week the Care Quality Commission, after a snap inspection, told North Middlesex to “significantly improve” treatment of A&E patients.

A spokeswoman for NHS England (London) said: “There is no plan to close the A&E.” She added that measures were being taken “to support the trust to make the improvements required by the CQC.”

The Department of Health said patient safety “is our absolute priority”. The three trusts have not yet responded to requests for comment.