Homerton crack baby theory and A&E threat

In a discussion thread from Mumsnet in Feb 2010 one of the commentators said "the bad reputation Homerton" is out of date and "it's been really improved in recent years."

She said: "Also my own doctor had her baby there and was very positive. The other thing about Homerton is that it has one of the best neo-natal units around because of all the crack babies etc... (Sorry I couldn't find a nice Guardian-y way of putting that without wanting to throw up. ) Plus they have posh consultants like Dr Katrina Erskine who is famous and that, and also works in posh-people private hospitals."

Blood and Property hasn't tried to find out if this claim is correct but judging by this Wikipedia entry and this New York Times story about an epidemic that never happened - it probably isn't.

Although "Cocaine slows fetal growth, and exposed infants tend to be born smaller than unexposed ones, with smaller heads. But as these children grow, brain and body size catch up" so may be the actual births are more dangerous.

But it's a possibility that cash spent on specialising services (In 2002 Homerton staff were shipped off to Soweto for 'battle surgery' training) to the particular needs of a community might not be relevant for very long.

A&E to close?

That's according to this Hackney Communist site: "Cuts of up to 187 million over next three years in Hackney NHS; Homerton Hospital might shut down the Accident and Emergency, Stroke and Maternity Departments, replaced by smaller GP units, polyclinics."

I asked around but no one seemed to know much about this. Doesn't mean it's wrong.

This site outlines possible major cuts in a secret report leaked to the BBC earlier this year

If you've got time, this is an interesting article:

Smoking crack and cutting throats in Hackney

Well there's not much going on in Hackney. But in San Diego they're looking at a photo called: "Chris helps his girlfriend Mona smoke crack in their apartment in Hackney London":

It is one of several taken in 2009 by New York photographer Seb Meyer. His blog explains how he took the pictures and includes a bizarre run-in with Hackney Police officers.

A quote from Seb Meyer's blog: "When they (the police) couldn’t find anything, they started accusing me of paying for prostitution.

“You were seen going into a toilet with a known prostitute.”

“Who are you calling a prostitute?” shouted Sam.

“Samantha Johnson?”

“Yes?”

“You’re known to the police as a prostitute.”

“Ok. That’s true.”

They turned back to me. “I think you went into the toilet, smoked drugs, and got a hand job from this woman.”

For something a bit lighter, there used to be road in Hackney called Cut throat lane. Photographer Michal Jaworski points this out in his blog as well as this: I'd heard of trees called black poplars because they are very rare British trees. He says there are a few of them in Hackney.