Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare respond to the NHS consultation on the future of healthcare services in northwest London.

Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust have produced a joint response to the NHS consultation on the future of healthcare services in northwest London.

The shared views of the College and Trust will be considered along with those of other stakeholders and the public as part of the “Shaping a Healthier Future” programme, which aims to improve the way that healthcare is delivered to 2 million people in the region.

The College and Trust formed the UK’s first Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) in 2007 in order to integrate healthcare with research and education more closely.

“We chose to respond together as an AHSC to demonstrate our commitment to integrating research and education with healthcare delivery,” said Professor Dermot Kelleher, Principal of the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London. “The proposed reconfiguration of NHS services presents an opportunity to speed and strengthen the adoption of our research and innovation for the benefit of patients in northwest London.”

The AHSC has chosen to support Option A, under which St Mary’s Hospital would become an acute medical centre and a trauma centre, Hammersmith would become a specialist centre and Charing Cross would become a local hospital. The AHSC supports these proposals on the basis that the NHS funds the replacement of research and education facilities required by the College.

Final recommendations put forward by NHS North West London are expected to be considered by February 2013. Any changes to the configuration of services would take at least three years to implement because of the need to develop out-of-hospital care in North West London’s communities.