Latest Update: The first specification outlines have been released and it is still 70% theory! Now it is 60% Exam 10% written coursework and still only 30% Practical! Following the consultation regarding changes to GCSE PE (in which the opinions of PE teachers seem to have been completely ignored) the government are forcing incredibly damaging changes to GCSE PE which will have far reaching impacts right down to year 7 PE lessons. They have decided that the course will change from the current 60% practical 40% theory to 30% practical and 70% theory! This change will almost completely take the physical/practical aspect out of Physical Education. They are also proposing to massively narrow the activities that students can use as the practical element (moving to a much more traditional / Public school offering of activities). The impact of this will mean a narrowing of the activities offered by secondary schools which will feed down through the year groups. The move to an almost solely theoretical course will also have an impact on the activity level of students in PE lessons, due to schools trying to maximise the performance of students by focussing much more on theory lessons rather than actually being physically active and taking part in sport. This will have long lasting and damaging effects on the health and fitness of future generations. The changes will also take away another avenue for students who are less academic to be successful and get a qualification in an area that they may wish to follow as a career. If these changes go through then many schools may choose to no longer offer Physical Education as a GCSE and the change to the GCSE PE course may well be the final nail in the coffin for physical education in secondary schools, if people do not force a change of direction.

Many patients are very anxious about the future of their local hospital, particularly after various media disclosures, including the announcement that 1,000 beds in hospitals across the city (of Birmingham) are due to be axed! Our campaign group, Save Good Hope’s Local Services, brings together local people who use and care very much about our local hospital, Good Hope, in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands. We are independent of any political party and are campaigning to stop the closure of key departments at our hospital. Closures of key departments at Good Hope Hospital could be the start of a slippery slope: in many areas of England, hospitals have already either been downgraded or even closed. One of our main aims, as stated in an earlier petition, has recently been successfully achieved. A public meeting to discuss the Trust’s proposals finally having being held in October, after much campaigning! And now we are calling for people across Birmingham to say NO to the closure of key departments at the hospital. These were revealed in the Trust's document (before the consultations had even finished!) as the following: 1. The transfer of Trauma FROM Good Hope to Heartlands Hospital; 2. The transfer of Orthopaedics, Ophthalmology and Colorectal Surgery FROM Good Hope to Heartlands and Solihull, both great distances to travel for many people and particularly difficult for carers and those they care for, the elderly, very young and disabled. In response to concern already expressed by many people at the ongoing consultations regarding transport, the Trust have suggested the equivalent of `taxi’ ambulances so to speak. But who would pay for this? Even if it was to be the Trust, how long would they actually pay before saying they had run out of funds? Would patients then be expected to pay, including those from other areas even further out, such as Tamworth & Lichfield? The Heart Of England Trust has been reported in the media as being the highest earning Trust IN THE COUNTRY from car parking charges, netting an annual profit of nearly £4million! At the public meeting, one of our campaigners asked the Trust why and if that money could be used to help keep our hospital services local? At present, it is obvious that this Trust STILL lacks openness, transparency and empathy with patients. They need to really start to `think like a patient’, because at the moment, they don’t.

The Bill would rewrite the rules that force market tendering of services and that are seeing millions of pounds wasted on competition lawyers that should instead be spent on patients.

They are to the best of my knowledge the only producer of guaranteed nut free bakery products available in the UK's big supermarket chains. The decision to remove this status will mean that anaphylactic customers who have traditionally made up a significant proportion of their customer base (and who adore their cakes etc) will be at risk of potentially fatal allergic reactions should they continue to use their products after the change.

Currently there are hundreds of day centres up and down the country who are providing day care for thousands of patients. Many of their customers are disabled but the facilities that they have do not readily reflect this. As there is no national inspection team for these units at present, they do not have the incentive to provide full disabled facilities. If an annual (or more frequent) inspection were to be carried out by CQC then shortcomings could be highlighted to the governing body or local authority and provision made for the facilities to be upgraded. My wife has attended one such centre catering for Alzheimer's and other dementias for a number of years. She is wheelchair bound as she cannot maintain her own weight and has had to leave as they do not have adequate hoists or, indeed, a disabled toilet.

The "NHS Bill 2015" campaign is calling on all General Election candidates to sign up to the new "NHS Reinstatement Bill", and is already attracting cross-party support. The “Campaign for an NHS Reinstatement Bill 2015" has produced an “NHS Reinstatement Bill” which sets out the legal steps needed not only to reverse the failings of the Health & Social Care Act 2012, but to fully restore the NHS in England as an accountable public service. Unless we all keep the pressure on MP's of all parties in the run up to the next election, our voices will be lost in the spin, sound bites and agendas. We were fooled in 2010 by false the promise of no NHS re-organisations. With the secret TTIP negotiations ongoing, now, more then ever, everyone has to make their voices heard regarding the NHS. Please contact your MP and prospective parliamentary candidates and ask them to support Professor Pollock's "NHS Reinstatement Bill", and ask them if they do not, why not? You can reach your MP via https://www.writetothem.com/ For further information, please see: https://www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/caroline-molloy/new-law-proposed-to-stop-nhs-becoming-simply-memory

The least wealthy of the richest 85 is worth $11bn. $25million is less than 0.25% of their wealth and considerably less than that for the wealthiest. It'll make no difference to them but will save the lives of countless people.

One in twenty adults in this country is affected by thyroid disease. Women with hypothyroidism outnumber men by ten to one. Symptoms include anxiety and depression, cardiological problems, hair loss, lack of libido, physical pain, exhaustion, hypertension, high cholesterol and weight gain. Some GPs also tell patients that diabetes is an inevitable long term consequence. The NHS diagnosis and management of the condition is usually through one blood test which measures thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). The lower the thyroid hormones in the pituitary gland, the more TSH the pituitary secretes. For decades now, this condition has been treated almost exclusively with Levothyroxine, a synthetic form of one thyroid hormone: T4. For most patients, T4 in the Levothyroxine converts to T3, which is then used by the body for energy. However, for a large proportion of hypothyroidism patients, this treatment either stops working or never quite starts. Even though these people’s TSH readings might fall into the ‘normal’ range (which, depending on your GP, can be anywhere between under 5 and under 10) their symptoms soon return and worsen over time. They are then told it’s ‘all in their mind’ or due to their lifestyle, and they receive no further help to cope with an ever-decreasing quality of life. Some may, in the meantime, be prescribed anti-depressants or be diagnosed with Fibromyalgia or CFS. Others develop heart conditions, particularly atrial fibrillation, which can occur both through under and over medication: this highlights the need for a more nuanced approach to their thyroid blood tests. Most, at any rate, simply have to deal with their condition(s) on their own with very limited help from the NHS. Much success has been achieved through some enlightened NHS endocrinologists or privately, however, using a combination of levothyroxine and liothyronine (T3) or natural desiccated thyroid, the old standard treatment before Levothyroxine. There is a growing trend amongst patients to feel the need to take their treatment into their own hands, including more extensive blood tests to show the real extent of their thyroid’s condition and activity, and thereby more accurately gauge the effectiveness of medication. This does, however, mostly have to happen privately due to the limited guidelines of the NHS. This means that, apart from the individual expense, monitoring of the treatment and condition is not regulated and information/research is not being gathered by the extensive NHS network to improve its understanding and treatment of hypothyroidism. We call on you to reconsider the NHS's adherence to the TSH reading as the principal guideline for diagnosing and monitoring hypothyroidism, to take patients’ symptoms more into consideration and to routinely use a full panel of FT4, FT3 and TSH blood tests for anyone still displaying symptoms of under-active thyroid, particularly when on thyroid hormone treatment. We also call on the NHS to make the combined medication of T3 – liothyronine – with Levothyroxine much more easily available to patients whose symptoms do not sufficiently improve on T4 alone. Considering the amount of work days lost and lack of quality of life for such a large number of tax payers, it is in the country’s interest that these patients should get more help. Their symptoms of exhaustion, physical pain, depression and anxiety, along with the increased tendency to develop cardiac disease and diabetes, should not be dismissed as just another malaise of middle age when there is a growing body of evidence to the contrary from people who have managed to treat themselves back to a level of health and vitality that they, and their GPs, thought they had lost for ever.

When you become a doctor or nurse, you sign the hipocratic oath, to serve and protect the poor and vulnerable, and not to exploit them or abuse your medical 'training' (is they had any), to cause pain and distress to the vulnerable! As these Department of Work and Pensions 'doctors and nurses'. have driven hundreds of thousands, to total despair, destitution, starvation, even having to beg for food at Food Banks, and driving some (hundreds), to suicide, I demand that these medical personnel be struck off and expelled from the BMA and Medical Register for the suffering that THEY HAVE caused! These people can also be held accountable, under sections 2 & 4, of the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide!

We are a growing group of families in North Bristol who want our children to grow up as fit, healthy and confident cyclists. At present there are very few opportunities for safe traffic-free cycling in this area; currently we need to load bikes on to cars and drive to places such as Festival Way or Ashton Court. Cycling on the Downs is forbidden due to a bylaw which was made in 1861. The Downs Committee (7 Merchant Venturers and 7 Councillors) has permitted a short stretch of cycle path near the Water Tower. Apart from that, this uniquely beautiful and flat parkland can only be explored on foot or via the road. Temporary closures of Circular Road on the Downs would create a brilliant car-free loop of over 3km, which children of all ages and cycling abilities could enjoy. It would also open up the Downs to people with disabilities who don’t feel safe cycling on the road alongside cars. Our campaign has support from Sustrans, The Bristol Cycling Campaign, CTC Bristol, LifeCycle, Travel West, Bikeability and Bristol Public Health. We want you to help us show the Downs Committee that there are many, many people who feel that the Downs should be a place where children can enjoy cycling in safety. By signing this petition and pledging to join our rides during Bristol Green Capital 2015, you will help to convince the committee that children should indeed have the freedom to ride on the Downs, and that this can be arranged in a way that accommodates the interests of all users of the Downs.

It's unfair and contrary to Allotment legislation. It breaches an agreement that governs prices in Edinburgh. It will make allotments unaffordable. It is prejudicial against the poor, disabled and elderly. It would make Edinburgh allotments the most expensive in the UK. It is contrary to healthy living policies of Council and Government.

On November 21, MPs will vote on a Private Member’s Bill aimed at halting the spread of privatisation across the NHS. Clive Efford’s Bill would scrap the worst parts of the Government’s Health and Social Care Act of 2012. The 2012 Act unleashed privatisation by imposing competition law on the NHS and exposing services to bids from private companies. Clive Efford’s Bill would rein in privatisation by • Removing competition requirements and regulations • Preventing the NHS watchdog Monitor acting as a competition enforcer • Restoring the Secretary of State’s duty to provide National Health Services • Shrinking what NHS hospitals are allowed to earn from private patients – currently up to half their total income! This petition has been launched by Stockport NHS Watch. We will deliver it to all four of Stockport’s MPs and lobby them to stand up for the NHS on November 21. We cannot stand and watch the NHS being stolen from us!