Re: London news on BBC

[Guest guest]

This is the text of that report, which I gather went out on London TV news. The pdf of figures is revealing, particularly the rationale for not providing figures given by some areas (it is 3Mb, so might not come through, but can be downloaded from the site), http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11427047:"London babies miss checks due to health staff shortagesAt least 21,000 babies in London did not have their one-year health review between August 2009 and January 2010 because of staff shortages.The worst performers were Waltham Forest Primary Care Trust, where only 3.4% of babies were examined, followed by the PCTs in Haringey and Hillingdon.Bromley and Kensington and Chelsea PCTs were able to see about 95% of babies.NHS London said a shortage of staff and an increase in births

led to children missing the "vital" checks.The one-year check-up to monitor the development of a child is part of the Healthy Child programme which was introduced by the previous Labour government.

Health worker vacanciesThe data, released to the BBC following a Freedom of Information request, showed that out of the 2,208 children born in Waltham Forest borough (between August 2008 and January 2009), only 75 received their one-year checks.Dr Ken Aswani, from NHS Waltham Forest, said: "We know the number of child health checks is not good enough and we are doing all we

can to prioritise this important service and increase the number of health visitors in our borough."We have focused on ensuring our most vulnerable children do see a health visitor for the one-year check."Annette , head of NHS Hillingdon's children and families department, said: "Over the last two years NHS Hillingdon has invested £600k in our health visiting service and recruited an additional 15 members of staff. "This now means that we are offering two universal health reviews for every child between the ages of eight and 12 months and again at two years."In Haringey 13.57% underwent the review, with 1,872 babies missing out, while in Hillingdon 14.31% were monitored, with health visitors unable to examine 1,539 babies.Eight other boroughs were able to conduct the check on less than 50% of the children in their area.

Additional trainingSeven other PCTs were unable to provide the figures as they either did not have the information or said they conducted the reviews at a later age.The best performers were the PCTs in Bromley, where 98.58% of

the children were checked, followed by Kensington and Chelsea at 94.24%

and ham at 93.71%.Prof Trish , chief nurse of NHS London, said: "Over the past five years the number of babies born in the capital has gone up by 14% - over 130,000 babies were born in London in the last year alone. "At the same time, the number of health visitors in London has fallen by a half. "We need another 300 health visitors to give babies and their

families better care. We are training over 100 new health visitors through a three-year fast track scheme but more are needed."This summer, NHS London launched a return-to-practice recruitment drive to bring health visitors who have left the profession back to work."She added that the worst-affected boroughs tended to have a highly mobile population "so tracking the families is very challenging".NHS London is also offering nurses opportunities to train as health visitors."

best wishes

Cowleysarahcowley183@...http://myprofile.cos.com/S124021COn

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london_pct.pdf