While we are trying to understand the quality of transparency in the organisational and outsourcing work of the NHS and its agencies, and waiting response to our previous findings/questions*, following is a further puzzle:
As Alexandra Avenue clinic in Harrow is bleeding in the sense that Harrow has committed huge sum (nearly a million pounds a year?) of rent and there is plenty of vacant space at Alex, why Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) rents private space at Pinn Medical Centre (Pinner) whose senior partner is the current chair of Harrow CCG?
On 30 January 2015 we were alerted about and we reported on the closure of the Wasu Medical Centre in Rayners Lane to the public as soon as seizure of the premises by official receiver was announced.
Probably NHSE knew that there is a problem brewing at the practice for sometime but they left the things to the last minute. Their chaotic action to direct patients to certain clinics has caused unhappiness in the South Harrow cluster GPs and patients -– this is concerning.

We glean bitterness and concerns amongst local patients and some GPs about very poor communication with them and the way patients of the Wasu practice have been managed and directed to certain surgeries.

We would like the NHS England (NHSE), Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Care Quality Commission (CQC) to come clean and explain:

Previously we have raised concerns regarding the following Harrow specific NHS matters:

Good that popular Harrow council chief executive Michael Lockwood, forced out by the short-lived Cllr Hall administration, is back today, but of course bad for the opposition leader Ms Hall who now has to work with the same Mr Lockwood.

Not only this embarrassment but also another defeat for the opposition leader who has been repeatedly leading her Conservative group to defeats (Councils in 2010 & 2014 – five sitting Tory councillors were defeated – and 2 by-elections in 2013).
Councillor Hall’s elected-mayor style Tory administration, grabbed through a highly controversial process, was marked by the resignation of the chief executive, followed by some key directors leaving – seemingly Hall-style administration was not possible with a strong chief executive in place.
Background

On 30 January 2015 we were alerted about and we reported on the closure of the Wasu Medical Centre in Rayners Lane to the public as soon as seizure of the premises by official receiver was announced.
Probably NHSE knew that there is a problem brewing at the practice for sometime but they left the things to the last minute. Their chaotic action to direct patients to certain clinics has caused unhappiness in the South Harrow cluster GPs and patients – this is concerning.

We glean bitterness and concerns amongst local patients and some GPs about very poor communication with them and the way patients of the Wasu practice have been managed and directed to certain surgeries.

We would like the NHS England (NHSE), Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Care Quality Commission (CQC) to come clean and explain:

Previously we have raised concerns regarding the following Harrow specific NHS matters:

We have been sent the following snap shot of the notice regarding a GP surgery and have heard concerns about the NHS follow up actions!
We don’t know the full circumstances of this GP practice but Dr Paramjit Wasu surgery was in a lowest risk band (Band 6) as recently assessed by the Care Quality Commission and it enjoyed £311,364 total funding, including £22,617 cost for the premises.

Seemingly NHSE has agreed for the WASU Medical Centre patients to be seen at the Ridgway surgery – we don’t know who contacted who for this arrangement but have become aware of the concerns about the inadequacy of information to the practices, including the surrounding practices.

None of the Harrow schools are within the top 100 schools in England with the best results at GCSE, according to the recent release of the school league tables.
All or the vast majority of their pupils attained the benchmark of five A*-C grades in GCSEs or equivalent qualifications, including maths and English GCSEs.
These top 100 schools include schools in Barnet, Enfield and Redbridge.
The situation regarding A-Level results is no different. With the exception of the independent Harrow School and North London Collegiate School, no other Harrow schools are in the lists of 100 schools and colleges in England with the best A-level results.
Schools in Haringey, Barnet, Redbridge, Southwark, Camden, Ealing and Enfield are included in this top list.
Harrow’s absence in the top ten of a series of Department for Education tables on higher education, in some cases more than Brent, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest, is a further let down for parents who expect best education opportunities and results for their children in Harrow.
Harrow’s position in the top leagues is disappointing and becomes more concerning considering that Harrow has a thriving private tutoring.
It was not very long ago that Harrow stayed at the top in many education areas.

In circulation petition to drop plans for £75 Brown Bin Charge appears to be less impressive as it has been heavily signed by Tories, including by the party members, the leader of the Harrow opposition Cllr Hall, chairman of the Harrow East Conservative Association as well as past and present Tory councillors.
Harrow Council proposes to charge £75 a year for the collection of the brown waste bins as it has to save £25million this year, as a part of the £75million of savings over the next four years because of the government cuts.
As usual there is no sign of a shadow budget by Councillor Hall to suggest how the required savings could be made – such is the quality of her council budgeting that when she presented her budget during her short lived council administration, it was heavily defeated.
Furthermore, her group has shown no apparent interest in demanding appropriate government funding for the borough – so much so that the Tories were nowhere near the recent Harrow protest against cuts and austerity measures.
While we expect the council to reconsider the proposed bin collection charges, we deplore such point scoring by the Tory group on the council.

Worrying to hear that the Conservative opposition group leader Councillor Hall has been conspicuously missing from the Conservative campaigns and fundraising events in the Harrow East constituency.

Given such relationships with his group on the council, can Mr Blackman effectively serve his constituents, especially as many resident issues relate to the work of the council. But then the political suitability and effectiveness of Mr Blackman, sitting MP and MP candidate for Harrow East, has been a matter of concern for long.

A recently released public opinion snapshot shows a five per cent drop in Harrow East Conservative popularity since 2010, narrowing the gap between them and the Labour to only three per cent.
Now he has not only been investigated about his claimed expenses, but he comes out as extremist and divisive in that he shows a lack of democratic sense to represent all his constituents and uses sensitive international situations to generate political support from the selected communities by siding with them in an unbalanced way.

We reported about the Intelligent Monitoring of GP practices by the Care Quality Commission where the inspecting and rating NHS GP practices help to anticipate, identify and respond more quickly to providers at risk of providing poor quality care – Band1 represents the highest risk and Band6 the lowest risk.

Click here for Harrow GP practices or here for GP practices in your area – click here to find out more about an individual practice.
There are further opportunities to know more about a GP practice and how it intends to improve its services (some practices encourage patient participation as part of their process to improve provisions):
In responding to our inquiry, Professor Nigel Sparrow of the Care Quality Commission has informed that “we do expect individual GP practices to respond to areas of concern that we have identified and to make the recommended improvements” and “We also encourage CCGs (Clinical commissioning groups), NHS England Area Teams and individual practices to publish their action plans on their own website”.
Therefore, it would be appropriate to ask the local CCG and GP practices to make public their action plan, following an inspection (MPs/ MEPs/ councillors, please ask your council to encourage this).
In Harrow, click here to access your GP practice website (would be quite revealing to see the huge difference in the quantity and quality of the information provided).
It would also be appropriate to ask the practice for its total funding per patient against the patient satisfaction score (Harrow has very interesting situation where some higher funding per patient has much lower satisfaction rating compared with moderate funding but higher satisfaction score).

In response to a Tory councillor letter ‘Does Harrow need a chief executive’, Harrow Observer has published our letter ‘Tory sacking comes back to bite them’ (5/12/14) which articulates that the councillor’s letter simply shows the frustration about the return of the chief executive’s post, mostly felt by the leader of his group.
Good that popular council chief executive Michael Lockwood, forced out by the short-lived Cllr Hall administration, has been re-appointed, but of course bad for the opposition leader Ms Hall who now has to work with the same Mr Lockwood.
Not only this embarrassment but also another defeat for the opposition leader who has been repeatedly leading her Conservative group to defeats (Councils in 2010 & 2014 – five sitting Tory councillors were defeated – and 2 by-elections in 2013).
Regarding the consultation about the CEO position, such was the level of consultation and consideration by Cllr Hall when she abolished the post that the councillors, including many in her group, learnt about her decision indirectly.
Note:

In separate moves, councillor Hall is under increased pressure to step down because of her disrespectful tweets that have resulted in petitions against her behaviour and Standards complaints!

The lead petitioner Leigh Pickett informs that the petition asking the LFEPA (London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority) and Harrow Council to hold Councillor Hall accountable for the offensive and inexcusable comments made on Twitter (below) about Gemma Collins during her appearance on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity, has now passed the 500 signature mark.

Councillor Hall is bound by at least two codes of conduct in her professional capacities; one for Harrow Council the other for the LFEPA.
Official complaints have now been submitted to both the LFEPA and Harrow Council with recommendations that Councillor Hall is sacked for significantly breaching the Codes of Conducts to which she should be adhering.
Following our article, we reported Cllr Hall to the Standards (Harrow Council monitoring officer and Fire Authority monitoring officer) under the provisions of the code of conduct.
Also 150 Harrow council employees in UNISON union petitions have demanded Cllr Hall’s resignation over her “offensive and inexcusable Tweets”, and have called upon the monitoring officer “to take this matter forward in order to avoid Harrow Council and its staff facing any further reputational damage which has the real potential to impact on all staff representing Harrow Council”.
Notes:

Nothing new about Cllr Hall being disrespectful or unprofessional – for example, sometime back, the Harrow Council Standards suggested: “Councillor Hall may benefit from training in media and interpersonal training and training in holding voluntary groups and public bodies to account” Decision Notice gov 008-039/ 442202”.
And, during an industrial action by the Fire Brigades Union, Cllr Hall, a member of London’s fire authority, said the union was taking the capital back to “the dark days of Arthur Scargill””.