The damage to the environment and economy of areas where this has been allowed is well documented. Poisoning of the water supplies, health issues, earthquakes are not imaginary and if you want an economic reason, property values can drop by 30% and you can find yourself unable to get house insurance. An estate agent in Poulton le Fylde, near one of Cuadrilla’s drilling sites, told the Observer "There are a lot of properties coming on to the market, and some of the owners are saying they want to get out before prices start dropping” Other local estate agents have said sales have fallen through because properties are near a fracking site. Herefordshire is an agricultural area and a tourist attraction, being an area of outstanding beauty. Experience in the US shows that fracking can create problems for local agriculture, including the loss of agricultural land, and concerns about water resources. Jumping forward to September 2015, you will have heard on BBC Hereford & Worcester that a new round of applications were to be allowed in the South of Herefordshire in the Wye Valley Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty and in autumn of 2016 were issued. Thanks largely to public resistance accompanied by adverse oil prices South West Energy handed back the licences but made clear that this is a 'temporary' reprieve and they would be back, The fight continues ... Meanwhile a documentary is in editing stages at present. Thanks to those who have caught up with the plot and all the new additions to signatures. . Further info: Nationwide Mutual, the largest US farming insurance underwriter, announced in 2012 that “from an underwriting standpoint we do not have a comfort level with the unique risks associated with the fracking process to provide coverage at a reasonable price." What would be the impact on tourism of hundreds of shale gas wells and associated infrastructure? In Australia, local tourism bodies are among the opponents of unconventional gas developments. The Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management has said that the UK should “not encourage fracking as a part of our energy mix until there is more evidence that operations can be delivered safely, that environmental impacts are acceptable and that monitoring, reporting and mitigation requirements are comprehensive and effective. Mark Menzies, the Conservative MP whose constituency covers much of the area in Lancashire where Cuadrilla has been active, has said “I do not believe that the regulatory system is robust or transparent enough to instill public confidence should permission be granted to the industry.". Having fought off a previous attempt by South West Gas & Oil, we achieved a temporary stay, but with current news 2 years later in 2018 we can no longer consider ourselves safe we must raise attention to the fact that we are in an area where previous attempts have taken place. Go tell your friends again that this is no longer a distant threat but a very real one right on our doorstep . For recent updates watch our associated facebook pages. Here is an explanation for beginners: https://www.facebook.com/frackfreeshires/videos/1971358513123509/

The drug I want to try is Gilenya. It is approved for one type of MS but not for mine.It is approved for RRMS but still in trials for PPMS. The final approval date is till over 18 months away, and in the mean time i'm just getting worse. I understand .all drugs have side effects having already been on a clinical trial. I'm 53 and married with two young children.and desperate to try something. Please help as there is NO approved treatment.

High Wycombe is a large town and the nearest A&E units are at Wexham (in Berkshire) and Stoke Mandeville Hospital - both of which are approx an hours drive away from Wycombe centre. John Radcliffe is the other nearby Hospital in Oxfordshire. Many people since they closed down the unit have suffered in pain and sadly there have been an increase in deaths as brought up in the recent condemning Keogh report. Please now listen to the people of Wycombe and the surrounding areas and bring this back. It doesn’t matter if you pay private medical insurance; everyone no matter who you are may need to use the A&E or their family and friends.

Appealing the decision would waste still more taxpayer cash which should be spent on making the NHS better. It would cause continued damaging uncertainty and anxiety for NHS staff and local people. The decision to close vital Lewisham services was completely flawed and has now been found unlawful. The government has already spent hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in a misguided attempt to close Lewisham hospital services. It should stop now, not throw good money after bad. If the High Court judgement were to be overturned, no hospital anywhere in the country would be safe from closure. See www.savelewishamhospital.com/ and www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs for more information.

A recent High Court Queens Bench decision to dismiss libel case HQ12X04053 on Summary Judgement has essentially eviscerated Whistleblower rights, rendering the Public Interest Disclosure Act, (PIDA 1998), worthless. The High Court's decision allowed an NHS Trust to manipulate "qualified privilege" to target a conscientious Whistleblower by directly sighting her "protected disclosure," made in good faith to the Health Professions Council, as a valid reason for retaliatory defamation and taking devastating punitive measures against her. This is why employees within the NHS do not blow the whistle on dangerous practice. Not only do Whistleblowers have their training, retraining and/or their career totally destroyed, their efforts are futile, often ignored and they frequently accomplish absolutely nothing. This Petition was drafted by Kim Sanders-Fisher, a student in retraining whose protected disclosure was violated; she has had a final Appeal to overturn the dismissal of her case denied. Case HQ12X04053 is in the public domain and can be reviewed at the High Court Queens Bench in London.

For the people of Weston-super-Mare and North Somerset it is vtal to protect our local hospital, its essential sevices and to resist the gradual spread of privatisation undermining the structure of the NHS. The Weston Area Health Trust is deemed too small to exist as a stand-alone trust, and the recent orgaisational changes changes have led to a £5 million shortfall in funding. WAHT has to find a new way of operating either by merging with another trust that has already achieved NHS foundation staus or finding a partner to run it as an operating franchise. We fear a solution where a private company could become the franchise operator as has happened at Hinchingbrooke Hospital. This is unacceptable for all of us that care about keeping our NHS public! So please,please show your support for the NHS andsign our petition against the privatisation of Weston Hospital.

There are up to three in one thousand people currently suffering from NEAD. It is a very debilitating condition, and one that usually means the person requires a carer 24 hours a day. There is typically a long delay in getting a diagnosis, which is partly due to insufficient knowledge, both of GP's and Specialists, but also a tendency for the condition to be labelled a 'pseudo' condition, that is, an assumption that it is not really a medical condition. This condition affects both men, women and children, and as awareness slowly increases, partly through the efforts of self funded groups such as the NEAD Trust, based in Sheffield, more and more cases are being confirmed. There is no official national organization, and in most cases, no local support. Sufferers, and their carers often have great difficulty in obtaining their benefit entitlements, and in some cases are suffering severe hardship and well as being marginalized by the health service and others. When you are caring for someone who may have multiple fits each day, causing falls, injury, loss of memory and the inability to carry out normal activities of daily living, it can take it's toll on both sufferer and carer. All we ask is that the condition is better publicized, that health professionals are better trained to diagnose and support sufferers, and a health service funded external national support organization is set up to help with ongoing advice and support. Thank you.

I am one of the B.E.S.T. petition team. For years, I suffered severe anxiety, poor health and suffered infertility as a result of doctors not diagnosing me with Graves disease. Even after my condition was recognised, I received appalling treatment. I was given unnecessary Radioactive Iodine treatment, which resulted in a range of unpleasant side effects. It took me five years to find an informed GP and Endocrinologist to provide me with the T3 hormone treatment, which now means I can live a normal life in mostly stable health. I consider myself one of the lucky ones. Huge numbers of people are being left to suffer severe, debilitating symptoms because thyroid and related autoimmune and adrenal dysfunctions are not being diagnosed or treated. Not enough of our GPs and endocrinologists are versed in these issues. For example, Eric Pritchard MSc has just recently written a paper that estimates 300,000 UK sufferers are on the wrong medication: http://tpauk.com/news/8639-medical-negligence-within-endocrinology-are-you-a-victim-- Tens of thousands of sufferers are being prescribed anti-depressants and other unnecessary drugs. Many are left unable to work and are forced to exist on state benefits. Medical practitioners are not being correctly trained to deal with these disorders which are affecting a huge number of people and costing the state millions as a result of misdiagnosis and incorrect treatments. There are hundreds of websites and support groups throughout the world dedicated to these conditions, with sufferers pouring out their stories of how long it has taken to be diagnosed, or receive the correct diagnosis, or receive the correct treatment: http://tpauk.com/ and http://www.thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/index.html are UK based. A worldwide organisation is http://www.thyroidchange.org/evidence.html Despite the thousands of daily posts and cries for help on these sites, endocrinology seems to neither listen, nor act. The specific reasons for the petition and particulars of the review we require are here http://tinyurl.com/knh5dpp Ultimately, we are calling for the education and training of medical practitioners to be urgently improved so that diagnosis and treatment of these conditions is effective. A timely and radical review would be welcomed by an increasingly knowledgeable and empowered public, as well as by those doctors currently struggling to provide what they know to be the most appropriate treatment for their patients. WE NEED OUR HEALTH BACK.

Without statutory regulation (SR) of herbalists patient choice and safety are at risk. As a result of recent changes to European Medicines law, herbalists must be authorized health professionals (by being statutorily regulated) to continue supplying a range of herbal medicines that have been in use for decades. Now, because of the delay in granting SR, many patients are now without the herbs that they have come to rely on. This is driving some people to purchase herbal medicines from unsafe internet herbal sites without advice from a qualified practitioner. SR will enable the public to consult properly trained practitioners rather than back-street traders. Without SR well-regulated degree level courses are under threat as the future of herbal medicine is uncertain. The loss of a wide range of herbal medicines means many practitioners are struggling to maintain their livelihoods or have been forced to stop practising. In addition, many herbal suppliers are being driven out of business or are making staff redundant. Why the delay? There is no adequate explanation. A promise is a promise! Grant herbalists SR now!

Independent midwives are fully registered and regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and choose to practice outside the NHS in order to provide continuity of care during pregnancy, birth and post-natally. They are valued by women who seek their support and better maternity outcomes that continuity of care provides. Independent midwives often care for women who have had traumatic experiences in previous pregnancies. For many women, this is an absolute priority. Women must be able to choose where, how and with whom they give birth. Some women have said that if they cannot choose an independent midwife, they would rather give birth alone. We know this is not safe. We are concerned that midwives may be go underground or that women may seek the services of untrained birth attendants. Our midwives also provide vital support to the NHS. Trusts call on the support of their local Independent Midwives when they do not have the skills available. We also relieve pressure on the system when women opt out of NHS care, saving an estimated £10-13 million per year with just 170 midwives. With 2000 expressions of interest from midwives to become independent we could potentially save the NHS in the region of £100 million pounds per annum. From October 2013 thousands of women could be denied this ‘gold standard’ midwifery care as independent midwives have not been able to obtain the insurance cover required by EU law. The Government has promised to support us in finding a solution and has said that independent Midwives should continue to book women who are due to give birth after October but no action has yet been taken. You can find out more about the current situation regarding independent midwifery in the U.K in this recent R4 ‘Woman’s Hour’ programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01s8qxc You can read more about the history and background to this situation here: http://www.birthrights.org.uk/2013/02/the-end-of-independent-midwifery-consultation-launched-into-mandatory-insurance-for-midwives/ Independent midwives Facebook campaign page here: https://www.facebook.com/ChooseYourMidwife

A&Es all over the country are under threat - from Hartlepool in the North to Margate in the South. But the full extent of the impact of closing A&E departments is still unknown. Evidence from Newark showed that when their A&E closed, death rates jumped by more than a third. * When NHS chiefs decided to close Newark A&E they promised that more lives would be saved. However, the opposite to this has happened - more lives have been put at risk and death rates have increased. We can’t let these closures happen across the country. We need a proper investigation into the impact of A&E closures before any more are closed or downgraded. Dr Clare Gerada, Chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners agrees. The Newark data revealed by The Mail on Sunday points to a close association between A&E closures and mortality. It is clear the provision of emergency care is in crisis across the whole of the NHS. Before any further closures are contemplated, there must be a full, independent assessment of their impact on patients and on the system as a whole.’ * If the recent ‘backdoor’ privatisation of the NHS wasn’t enough, the unjustified closure of our A&E departments * Shocking proof A&E closures cost lives, Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2323141/Shocking-proof-Accident-Emergency-closures-cost-lives-Death-rate-jumps-THIRD-department-closes.html

Throughout the United Kingdom there is a forgotten group of people. A group of people, many thousands of them, with severe, life-shortening conditions who, because of medical advances are living well into adulthood when in the past they may not have been expected to, find themselves lost in limbo in a position when they are too old to use children's respite services and yet too young for the available adult respite services. Currently, all adult hospice services are set up largely to cater for much older adults suffering from cancer and other terminal illnesses, they are just as unsuitable a place for this age group of people to go to as children's respite services are. They find themselves stuck in the middle with nowhere to go. These respite breaks are vitally important to the young adults and their families, especially for the majority who still live at home with their parents, because it is the only time when the young adults get a break from their parents and for some they can be quite isolated at home so these breaks may be their only opportunity to socialise with others of a similar age. Equally as important if not more so is the break it gives families; the parents get a chance to relax and recharge their batteries, safe in the knowledge that their son/daughter is being well cared for and enjoying themselves. However, without any respite services the parents will have to provide constant care 24 hours a day 365 days a year without a break which will lead to high stress levels for the parents, carer burnout and many other health problems, because caring for a disabled adult with a life-shortening condition is a full-time job. Its not acceptable in any other job to be expected to work all year round without even a single day of rest, so why should it be acceptable in this case? The following articles were printed in The Glasgow Herald newspaper dated 10 May 2013, and they highlight the problems facing young disabled adults with life-shortening conditions. The links to these articles are as follows:- http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/young-adults-are-being-left-in-limbo-by-hospice-decision.21041635 http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/health/hospice-charity-sets-age-limit-on-services-for-young-people.21041823