Barts Health NHS Trust is the biggest hospital trust in England, running six hospitals including Whipps Cross, Newham University and The Royal London. It has the biggest health PFI and the biggest deficit. We the undersigned note that: a) Barts Health NHS Trust is in financial crisis with a £93m deficit, the Chief Executive recently resigned, and pending reports on the quality of care and worsening A&E waiting times soon to be released; b) Barts Health NHS Trust is paying £43m a year in interest payments to private investors on the PFI contracts; c) This is a main cause of Barts Health’s deficit and its £58m of cuts last year, including the loss of 10% of posts and the downbanding of staff; d) The PFI contracts make our hospitals outsource key services (like domestics services and catering) to private providers; even when it is more expensive. Barts Health saved 7% of the costs of some services provided under the PFI (or £4m per year) by bringing them in-house. - Learn more about Barts PFI at www.peoplevsbartspfi.wordpress.com - Learn more about PFIs at www.peoplevspfi.org.uk

Mental health services in Sefton are currently provided by Inclusion Matters, a locally run company. Their staff provide a high-quality service. South Sefton CCG and Southport & Formby CCG have decided to commission the service from cheaper providers from April 2015. The contract for the service has been awarded to two organisations based outside Sefton: Cheshire and Wirral Partnership and Insight UK. Staff have now been informed that the new providers plan to make staff redundant. This is despite previous assurances being given by the providers to the CCGs that they would provide a service of the same consistency and quality. South Sefton CCG and South Formby CCG have made a poor decision based on cost, not quality of care. The decision will impact on jobs and on the accessibility and quality of the service. For the good of vulnerable people, committed staff and the local community, the CCGs should reverse their decision and put care before cost.

Hartlepool hospital has systematically been stripped of it's A&E department and virtually all of it's clinical and surgical services, on a vague promise that an alternative hospital would be built on land at Wynyard. Now, the North Tees and Hartlepool Trust, our local Hartlepool MP, Iain Wright and the Hartlepool Borough Council are all on public record saying this will never happen. It was completely foolhardy and indeed negligent of Hartlepool Borough Council to allow the sale of this land to happen under these circumstances. I believe it was complete madness to allow a perfectly good training hospital to be stripped of it's staff, resources, assets and have the very land it sits upon sold from under it, without a cast iron guarantee of a replacement. I feel that this has been done surreptitiously, without the prior knowledge, consultation or consent of the people of Hartlepool

It has been proven that alcohol consumption at Scottish football matches leads to increases in violence and domestic violence. The ban has the backing of leading anti-abuse charities and has made football family friendly and reduced cases of violence, it should not be reversed.

The decision to withdraw sailing from the Paralympics comes at a time when the opportunities for disabled sailing are expanding. The reason given for the withdrawal is that not enough nations provide sailing for disabled people. Any sport takes time to develop, especially something that was considered impossible until very recently. But as the awareness of disabled sailing has increased so have the numbers participating and so have the number of nations taking it up. Clearly the International Paralympic Committee has decided it will not wait for the necessary increase, and in doing so, will deprive disabled people in less developed countries of the opportunity to take up a sport where they can use their minds to race as well as any able bodied person. It is a disgraceful decision and although the IPC says it is Final, nothing is ever final. If enough people get behind the campaign the IPC will either have to face the opprobrium of many or change their decision: The words of Shel Silverstein’s Poem “The Musn’ts” comes to mind. Listen to the mustn’ts child, Listen to the Don’ts. Listen to the Shouldn’t’s, The Impossibles, the Won’ts. Listen to the don’t have’s, Then listen close to me. Anything is possible Everything can be. If enough people get behind the campaign the Committee will either have to face the opprobrium of many or change their decision.

Spitting is not only rude and disrespectful, but also has health implications and aids the transmission of infectious diseases. Why we now seem to allow this grotesque social tick to continue in public is beyond me. Not only do people spit outdoors over anything they can, I have also noticed this occurring in some public indoor venues. Also the amount of times I have nearly been inadvertently spit on by people in cars and walking in the street is one too many, it needs to stop!

A lot of beds are blocked because cannot leave hospital. The two organisations want to keep control so they keep there jobs. People should be first concerns

Currently two very vital depatments are under threat of being privatised. Sterile Services who ensure that all the instruments and medical devices used in the trust and throughout the county in GP surgeries,minor injury units etc are sterilised to a very high standard. Also the IT department who are responsible for all patient data and all computer systems that are used in the trust. Do you want a private company having all your personal medical data? I for one do not!. It is important that the people of Cornwall get the service that they deserve. This is your NHS!

The Prime Minister made a personal promise to cancer patients at the last election that they would be able to access the treatments their doctors recommended. In response, the Cancer Drugs Fund was introduced in 2010 to ensure cancer patients in England were able to access new, innovative treatments that weren't currently available on the NHS. This was an enormous step forward for thousands of patients with advanced or rare cancers, giving them access to treatments that enhanced their quality of life and gave them precious extra time with their families. Yet, from March 13 2015 8,000 cancer patients will have this access to vital treatments cut off. NHS England has recently announced that it will remove 25 treatments from the Cancer Drugs Fund, with effect from March 2015, meaning nearly 8,000 cancer patients a year will be denied life-extending drugs condemning them to an early death and denying the opportunity to improve their quality of life. These changes are a backward step in treatment for advanced cancer and rarer cancers. Doctors will be forced to tell their patients there are treatments that can prolong their lives but they will no longer be available. The Government and drug companies must sit down and find a way to guarantee access to cancer treatments at a cost which is affordable to the NHS. The NHS should be there when you need it the most and the Prime Minister should stand up for cancer patients.

Bath's Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases' reputation for excellence, built over the last 250 years, has been shown to be consistently of the highest quality by recent CQC inspections. The RNHRD is the world's and the nation's first, iconic national hospital for the diagnosis and treatment of rheumatic diseases, Patients of the RNHRD, some with over 50 years experience of treatment, and from all over the country, believe that the historic site in the city centre is an essential ingredient in the exceptional quality of their treatment and should continue to serve them as it has on site and covering national as well as regional patients. Patients believe that the exceptional quality of the care they receive at RNHRD stems from an amalgum of factors. First from the reputation of the hospital for excellence of care, as a training centre for many of the world's senior practising rheumatologists, and where there is an integration of current research, clinical practice and application through therapy which has been built over many years within a small specialist institution, the birthplace of rheumatology. Secondly the symbiotic integration of practice and new thinking and the team approach engendered in a small institution provides a sense of identity and purpose that translates into exceptional approaches to treatment that can be identified by patients in comparison with that in other hospitals. Thirdly there is a sense of pride in the history and uniterrupted purpose of medical practice on this iconic site, that strengthens and influences practice in the same way that it does in other similalrly ancient institutions such as historic schools and universities. Lastly the RNHRD was the first national hospital to be created and it it remains functioning as that within the same buildings with doctors diagnosing and treating the same area of disease for which it was created 250 years ago. This makes it a vital part of our living national heritage and an essential ingredient of Bath's World Heritage City status.

Special Support Centres (SSCs) provide a unique and dedicated educational environment for children with moderate to complex learning difficulties who are deemed unsuitable for mainstream education.

It is a vital service for elderly people with Dementia/Alzheimer's and should stay open. This centre is situated in Ainsdale, Southport. It is the only Dementia specialist care centre in a catchment area of approximately 150,000 people. The council proposes to close it and move everybody across to another centre. This unit with specialist trained staff provides a day care service for older people with Alzheimer's and Dementia and deals with cases from early onset to the later stages of the illness. It provides a vital life-line for carers giving them the required respite whilst being assured of the safety, health and well-being of their loved ones at the centre. The centre is geographically perfectly placed in the middle of the areas it services. Please look at the response on our Facebook page 'Friends of Brookdale' https://www.facebook.com/brookdaledaycentre