Category Archives: Health

WBRA visit to Bethlem Hospital Museum

Posted on October 7, 2015 by | Comments Off on WBRA visit to Bethlem Hospital Museum

Visit to the new Museum of the Mind at Bethlem Hospital

 Bethlem talk 2

WBRA were invited to a talk on the history of Bethlem Royal Hospital and its predecessors in London. Caroline Smith, Education and Outreach Officer, gave a talk to about 25 members and friends who attended on 16 September. Bethlem Royal Hospital was founded in 1247 and was the first institution in the UK to specialise in the care of the mentally ill. The hospital continues to provide in-patient care as part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and has been at its current location on Monks Orchard Road since 1930

The Museum of the Mind has been open to the public since February 2015 in the Hospital’s former administration building. Its displays offer unparalleled resources to support learning about the history of mental healthcare and treatment. There is no charge for entry.

Bethlem museum 2

Bethlem Royal Hospital, the Maudsley Hospital and Warlingham Park Hospital, and a collection of historic objects and art, including works by former Bethlem patients such as Jonathan Martin, Richard Dadd and Louis Wain. Ms Smith gave a fascinating account of the development of mental health care in London and the south east. She told of how men and women were always separately housed but “visitors” were allowed, on payment of a donation, to see how the patients lived, which sadly but inevitably led to a voyeurism that we would frown on today.

Bethlem museum 1

We also visited an exhibition on the Home Front in WWI, and the permanent museum.

There are also regular free events at the museum including:-

7 November, 2pm – archivist Colin Gale provides an introduction to Bethlem’s ‘Criminal Lunatic’ Department on which artist Richard Dadd ws a patient.

12 November, 7 pm – Mike Jay speaks on the life of James Tilly Matthews, and signs copies of his book The Influencing Machine

28 November, 2pm – Gill Smith discusses the after-life of Bethlem’s third building as the Imperial War Museum

5 December, 10am,- Come and create your own Louis Wain Christmas Cat tree decorations to take home, and help decorate the tree in the museum. This is a free drop-in event suitable for all ages.

See the full programme on http://museumofthemind.org.uk/about

 

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Posted in Health, leisure

Opposition to the Closure of the Public Toilets in Beckenham’s High Street

Posted on January 19, 2015 by | Comments Off on Opposition to the Closure of the Public Toilets in Beckenham’s High Street

The Beckenham Society has lodged a formal objection to the closure of the public toilets in the High Street Beckenham. The proposal will now be discussed at the Executive Committee meeting on 11 February. There is still time to register your objections. You can send them to csc@Bromley.gov.uk

A protest organised by The Beckenham Society

A protest organised by The Beckenham Society

The Beckenham Society has not been able to obtain accurate figures for the running of the toilets. The costings given seem to be vastly out of scale compared with other public toilets in the neighbourhood. The only nearby alternative as a so called Community Toilet is in Costa Coffee in the High Street. This is a single toilet at the rear of the premises with inadequate signage that it is available to non-customers. The council pays £1000 a year to Costa Coffee for this “facility”. Other premises are far away eg Waitrose or the Odeon cinema, and as far as the latter is concerned does not open until the afternoon most days.

Copers Cope Area Residents’ Association have applied to have the toilets listed as an Asset of Community Value, which means that the council would have to offer it to a local group or other provider before selling it on the open market. This location is of course of prime importance to the centre of Beckenham, affording great views of “Church Hill”.

View from the flower beds/ toilets to St George's Church

View from the flower beds/ toilets to St George’s Church

There is great concern that if the toilets were closed, the whole of the flower bed area would be included in any sale. This has not been ruled out by Cllr Smith.

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Posted in Health, Local Environment

More threats of toilet closures

Posted on November 17, 2014 by | Comments Off on More threats of toilet closures

London Borough of Bromley is threatening more closures of public toilets. The public toilets in Penge are now under consultation for closure and we understand that those at Thornton’s Corner in Beckenham are once again under consideration for closure.

The closure of Penge toilets will be considered  at the Executive meeting Wed 26th November at 7pm.  

Beckenham Toilets at Thornton's Corner

Beckenham Toilets at Thornton’s Corner

The closure of Beckenham toilets will be discussed at the Environmental Services Policy Development and Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday 20th Jan 2015, prior to an Executive decision.

Objections can be made via the council’s general email address csc@bromley.gov.uk

“Community Toilets” are supposed to replace public toilets by the council paying the business £1000 a year to allow non-customers to use them. In Beckenham, the  “Community Toilet” in Costa Coffee is reported as being in a very poor state. Whatever their customers may think of the toilets being in a dirty condition, if the council is paying the business £1000 a year, they should be kept spotless.

But the important thing is to keep the public toilets open. They are an important contribution to keeping the High Street busy with happy and “comfortable” shoppers!

 

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Posted in Health, Local Environment

Beckenham Beacon

Posted on March 28, 2014 by | Comments Off on Beckenham Beacon

Bromley Clinical Commissioning group has published an Outline Strategic Plan for the Future Utilisation of Beckenham Beacon (BB).

However, the reality is that we are not much further forward. Most of the recommendations are for further work for instance that BB forms part of a wider estates review; work is continued to explore redesign of pathways with a view to transferring out-patient activity from acute settings into the community using BB as a facility (see that jargon!); and that CCG considers further exploration of the gaps identified between need and planned provision. It is welcome, though some may think fairly obvious, that CCG should “consider specifying the desired location of service delivery within future service specification, wherever this is appropriate”, and “agreement is made with all providers providing services at Beckenham Beacon that they will not discontinue or alter the delivery of any service without prior consultation and agreement with the CCG and key stake holders”. We welcome the recommendation that the CCG looks to maximise the facility and improve accessibility for patients through extended operational hours (evenings and weekends) where appropriate.

The Chair of WBRA has attended all meetings of the Patient Advisory Group, but feels that this group has not been used as well as it could have been. The only document we discussed was the “Needs Assessment” which is a statistical analysis of what people using BB are like – the usual age/ gender / income/ ethnic minority profiles. Clearly if you live here it didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know. We were asked to prioritise the services we thought should be provided in BB, but WBRA said that it was difficult to do so based just on a statistical analysis and no information on current usage or the capacity of BB to take existing or new services.

Of concern is that it appears that Kings, who took over running BB in October, want to move all paediatric services to PRU. This is apparently because of patient safety issues in that there are insufficient consultants to provide cover at both PRU and BB. However, we understand that further questions will be asked regarding this proposal.

WBRA and CCARA have asked that the Patient Advisory Group be continued into the next phase, but have not had a direct response to this question.

 

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Posted in Health

Age UK Bromley and Greenwich

Posted on November 26, 2013 by | Comments Off on Age UK Bromley and Greenwich

Age UK Bromley & Greenwich works to improve the quality of life of all older people. They provide free, confidential and impartial information including advice on welfare benefits across the boroughs of Bromley and Greenwich. Their services include help with shopping, toe nail cutting, hospital aftercare, specialist dementia care, and computer and exercise classes. Find out more about their range of local services and projects on our website, or call 020 8315 1850.

 Age UK Bromley & Greenwich – Give a little help, get a little help

Wealth of Experience puts local residents who need a task doing in touch with timebank volunteers who can do it, in return for a suggested  donation to Age UK Bromley & Greenwich. Call us on 020 8315 1873 or sign up online at www.ageuk.org.uk/bromleyandgreenwich/how-you-can-help/wealth-of-experience/

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Posted in Health