The treatment centre for people with brain injuries, part of the Edgware community hospital in London, is about to close its doors
More than 1 million people visit A&E every year with a head injury, of whom about 135,000 have a serious problem. Treating such patients, and nursing them back to as close to full health as possible, is one of the NHS's biggest challenges. Patients can receive care for many months, and permanent disability, rather than a full recovery, can be the outcome.
An network of brain injury rehabilitation units undertakes this slow, delicate work. London has five of them – three in the south of the capital and two in the north – but only until tomorrow. That is when one, the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit (BIRU), based at Edgware community hospital in north London, closes its doors.
BIRU has 15 beds, and patients stay for up to 18 weeks. During that time they receive therapy and support from a multi-disciplinary team of neuro-psychiatrists, neuro-psychologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, and specialist nurses.
Luke Griggs, a spokesman for Headway, the brain injury association, said it was "hugely concerned about the impact the closure of the BIRU will have on individuals and families in London affected by acquired brain injury [ABI]. The closure of BIRU, which provides vital specialist residential and out-patient services for people suffering from the effects of ABI, will put even greater pressure on the already overstretched rehabilitation services that remain in the capital."
The NHS's London Specialised Commissioning Group (LSCG) insists that the loss of the service does not constitute a cut. Patients will in future attend the unit in Harrow, a few miles away, or one of the three much further away, in south London. There will be no reduction in the NHS in London's capacity to help such patients, said a LSCG spokesman.
But, said Griggs: "BIRU's closure will undoubtedly mean families in north London having to travel further to visit and support their loved ones, increasing the pressure and strain they are already experiencing." He does not accept that a recent drop in the number of patients being referred – which the LSCG said made the unit inviable – is due to a lack of need, as demand for Headway's services, both in London and the UK, is increasing.
"The closure of BIRU and the removal of its specialised in-patient and out-patient services would appear to be a cut to services as it will leave a significant gap in care provision for patients with cognitive and behavioural problems in north London and the surrounding area," said Griggs.