Having defiantly announced at the Imperial NHS Trust's Public Board Meeting on Wednesday 26th November that she was going on a week-long trip to the US organised by McKinsey, the management consultants, and paid for by NW London CCGs, Dr Tracey Batten, the CEO, announced on Friday morning at a meeting with the campaign group, Save Our Hospitals, that she had thought better of it and was not now going. About 23 NHS policy-makers are due to visit next week Boston and the east coast, at a cost of about £120K to the public purse, to visit, according to board papers, "innovative organisations who are renowned for excellent community care, integrated care and partnership models. Invitees to the tour include chief executives from acute and community providers and commissioners in the North West London sector".
"Integrated care" in the US is widely associated with "managed care", with high insurance premiums, exorbitant CEO salaries and denial of care.
"Save Our Hospitals" (saveourhospitals.net) is campaigning to keep the A&Es at Charing Cross and Ealing hospitals open and to keep the whole of Charing Cross hospital with its 360 acute beds and Hyper Acute Stroke Unit |