There’s a big brouhaha going on in NW London at the moment over the proposals to reorganise the way our hospitals work.

Needless to say all the local agitators and pressure groups are out in force, mostly peddling totally inaccurate messages like “Save our hospitals”, “You won’t have A&E services”, “Major cuts to your health service”.

Needless to say most of this is totally fictional and they have not understood the actual proposals, which are contained in an 80 page consultation document. I even wonder if any of them have read it.

I have been to several public meetings recently. I am appalled at the inability of people to understand the proposals, the way in which everything is parochial, angry and internalised, and their inability to step aside from “it might be inconvenient for me” and see the bigger picture. People are being angry and frightened, because they dislike change and they cannot (or will not) make the effort to understand.

Nevertheless, and although my GP is one of the team responsible for the proposals, in fairness I have to say they have not been well presented, in clear and straightforward messages and in a way which Joe Public can understand. Joe Public does not listen to detailed arguments (he never did!) but needs sound bites and simple statements. The NWL NHS team may be excellent clinicians, but they have not got good PR/marketing/presentation skills — and it shows. I’m no expert but a lifetime in business (including training) has put me ahead of the pack.

As a working thinker I have therefore made it my business to get involved. Having read the consultation document a number of times I have now distilled it down into a 10 slide, simple presentation for my doctor’s surgery patients’ group. And I have tried to help the NHS team to hone their messages.

Here is a copy of my presentation slides, which are on Slideshare. If you are in NW London then please read the presentation.

[slideshare id=14342271&style=border:1px solid #CCC;border-width:1px 1px 0;margin-bottom:5px&sc=no]

The bottom line is that this is roughly a 10% change in what the patient will see. In other words for every 10 people who go to hospital, one may go to a different hospital. All these hospitals are within something like an 8 mile radius — it’s not like we have to travel 30, or even 60 miles to hospital as is the case in many other areas of the country.

Now I’m not pretending the proposals are flawless; of course they aren’t. There are currently some big gaps like the lack of appropriate public transport services — something he NHS team are well aware of and are already discussing with Transport for London. However ultimately we have to stand aside from our parochial feelings and do what we know is right. In my mind, and regardless of the business case, these proposals are clinically, logically and logistically the right ones and should have been done years ago.

If you can, please also read the Shaping a Healthier Future consultation document.

When you’ve done that please have your say on the proposals; there is an online questionnaire.

The consultation runs until 8 October.