The NI Children's Hospice provides support and care to hundreds of children with life threatening and life limiting conditions on an annual basis. Rising costs have forced the charity to reduce bed capacity for respite stays for families from across Northern Ireland. The Department of Health have it within their power to ensure the relatively small funding shortfall is met.

I’m Tom Thayer, a hospital consultant. I treat patients left with horrifying mouth injuries after trying to pull out their own teeth out. Everyone who needs an NHS dentist should be able to get an appointment. But overstretched and underfunded, there are now fewer and fewer NHS dentists available. A recent survey found nine out of ten practices are no longer taking on new NHS patients. The Government’s own figures show that 13 million people are unable to get NHS dental treatment, while nearly half our kids are no longer getting regular NHS check-ups. In February of this year the previous Government announced a plan meant to encourage dentists to see new patients. But the money they offered to fund it is less than half what's already being scraped out of dentists' budgets, and dentists like me could see straight away that it was not good enough - it won't stop dentists leaving the workforce or help the millions who can't get care. Dentistry isn’t a nice to have, or an optional extra. The oral health gap between rich and poor is widening. Tooth decay remains the no 1 reason a child will end up in hospital. Day in, day out my colleagues are seeing scenes that belong in the Victorian era. Simply because they can’t get an NHS appointment. None of this is inevitable. This is a wealthy 21st-century nation. This is all the result of choices made in Westminster. Our new Prime Minister Keir Starmer ran for office promising to tackle this crisis, and reform the dental contract to rebuild NHS dentistry for the long term. Join me, The British Dental Association and The Mirror in telling him he needs to act urgently and deliver on this promise without delay. Millions of people who need an NHS dentist can’t afford to wait any longer.

By Catherine Burns & Alison Benjamin Health Correspondent & BBC Verify Well well well truth finally now @bbcpointswest didnt listen to me so you did thank you people . England's healthcare regulator has told BBC News that maternity units currently have the poorest safety ratings of any hospital service it inspects. BBC analysis of Care Quality Commission (CQC) records showed it deemed two-thirds (67%) of them not to be safe enough, up from 55% last autumn. The "deterioration" follows efforts to improve NHS maternity care, and is blamed partly on a midwife shortage. The government said maternity care was of the "utmost importance". The Department for Heath and Social Care (DHSC) said £165m a year was being invested in boosting the maternity workforce, but said "we know there is more to do". The BBC's analysis also revealed the proportion of maternity units with the poorest safety ranking of "inadequate" - meaning that there is a high risk of avoidable harm to mother or baby - has more than doubled from 7% to 15% since September 2022. This is not an isolated incident; it underscores a critical gap in our healthcare system - the lack of training for midwives, doctors, and nursery nurses in managing pregnancies complicated by type 1 diabetes. According to Diabetes UK (2019), approximately 700 women with type 1 or type 2 diabetes experience serious health complications during pregnancy each year that could be prevented with better care. We need urgent action to ensure that all healthcare professionals involved in prenatal and postnatal care are adequately trained in managing pregnancies affected by type 1 diabetes. This includes understanding how to interpret blood glucose monitoring devices accurately and how to respond effectively when these devices give incorrect readings. We cannot afford more near-miss stories like my daughter's or worse still - tragic outcomes due to inadequate training. We urge health authorities across the country to prioritize this issue immediately.

Every day, every night, Winchester's A&E department is extremely busy. Saving lives. Patching up injured children, agricultural workers, OAPs from care homes, students, casualties from road traffic accidents, revellers who've overdosed on alcohol or drugs, and all kinds of people. Virtually everyone in the city and the surrounding towns will have a family member or friend who has passed through this department. There is currently a consultation - open until 17 March. We need people to respond to this consultation and express their views on the proposed NHS changes. Save our Winchester A&E! IMPORTANT - Please make your views known on the Hampshire Together Consultation: https://www.hampshiretogether.nhs.uk/

Our collective appeal is centred around the urgent need for a clear road map on targeted investment in biomedical and health research. We propose a comprehensive 5-step strategy that includes: 1. Dedicated Research Funding: Allocate resources specifically earmarked for biomedical and health research into both adult and paediatric Long Covid. By doing so, we can accelerate the pace of discovery by uncovering the intricate pathophysiology of the condition. 2. Collaborative Research Initiatives: Foster interdisciplinary collaboration between research institutions, healthcare providers, charitable organisations and those with lived experience to create a unified approach with shared expertise, resources, and data, leading to more robust and impactful studies. 3. Treatment Trials: Fund and expedite clinical trials for potential treatments. By streamlining regulatory processes and providing support for innovative therapies, we can fast-track the development of interventions that improve health outcomes. 4. Public Awareness and Education: Invest in public awareness campaigns to educate individuals about the potential long-term consequences of COVID-19 and the barriers and stigma they may experience with it. Early awareness can prompt proactive healthcare-seeking behaviour and contribute to more effective management of the condition which in turn will reduce the impact on healthcare services. 5. Service Provision: Continue funding specialised services to support adults, children, and young people (along with their families) who are suffering from Long Covid. Long Covid, identified as a chronic condition, has demonstrated varied outcomes in paediatric services, with 56% improving one functional severity category while 40% remain broadly the same level of impairment and 0.4% show deterioration. At 6 months, the largest UK service has demonstrated that the number of children and young people with over 50% school attendance has more than doubled. Moreover, individuals with Long Covid exhibit the highest healthcare utilisation over a 2-year period, spanning general practice, emergency department, and outpatient care. They also demonstrate the second-highest rates of hospital and critical care admission when compared to both pre-pandemic and pandemic control groups. Long Covid care, estimated at over £3000 per person per year, is nearly four times more than care for the same individuals before the pandemic and nearly three times as much as care in age- and comorbidity-matched individuals before and during the pandemic. Given these substantial healthcare needs and associated costs, patients require ongoing management, monitoring, and support through specialised clinical networks. These networks should be designed to seamlessly integrate research findings into clinical care, ensuring a comprehensive and effective approach to addressing the challenges posed by Long Covid.

It's important to keep the Fitness Industry alive with high quality classes and Qualified and insured professionals who work with passion and enthusiasm. But without decent pay and better working conditions and guaranteed hours many are leaving this Industry because honestly they can't make the ends meet.

Pembury Circus is one of the most polluted parts of London with nitrogen dioxide levels exceeding 100ug/m3 – 10x the WHO recommended limit of 10ug/m3 and in breach of the UK legal limit of 40ug/m3. It is also one of the most dangerous and inaccessible junctions in the borough. It has one of the highest records of traffic incidents in the borough with more than 123 collisions and 142 casualties in the last six years. On a daily basis school children from the LEYF Pembury Community Nursery, Rooftop Nursery @Brook, Mossbourne Parkside Academy (primary), Mossbourne Community Academy (secondary), Stormont House Special School and Nightingale Primary School have to navigate this hostile and polluted junction. It is used by thousands of residents, visitors and commuters passing through Hackney Downs station on a daily basis; and by more than 750 cyclists daily without any road markings or protected cycle lanes. Hackney Council are well aware of the dangers, having noted the lack of any adequate, safe and accessible pedestrian crossings in the Hackney Central Footways map produced as part of the Hackney Central Impact and Ideas Fund. We're calling for action now.

Due to Government incompetence during the Covid-19 Pandemic, many UK citizens now suffer from Long-Covid. Meaning loss of earnings, and loss to quality of life. Many are now unable to work, many like myself have had to give up a well paid job, for lower pay, as we are now unable to continue with heavy work. Many are still in receipt of Statutory Sick Pay of the meagre amount of £99.95 per week, which is grossly insufficient to live on, meaning having to claim for other benefits such as Universal Credit, to top up. The stress of going from well paid jobs to very low benefits, and even lower paid employment, only undermine our health further. At this time, there is no cure for Long-Covid, we are still unaware of what causes this condition. Meaning anyone who had had, or in future suffers from Covid, may well end up also suffering from Long-Covid. It is an awful disabling condition, which leaves you breathless, fatigued, and at times unable to move. You go from being full of beans one second, and in the next, you have no beans at all, every muscle in your body aches, it's like living with 24 hour flu, every day, meaning menial tasks are impossible. Government incompetence during the early stages of the pandemic, left everyone open to contacting Covid, and becoming a Long-Covid sufferer, and with Covid still rife, meaning anyone could still become a sufferer of this awful condition. Many have had to give up work and survive on benefits, or like myself, give up a well paid job, for a lower pay, as we could no longer do the work we used to.

The cessation of this service during the pandemic has put our community in a vulnerable position, and we believe that residents requiring immediate urgent care should not have to seek it outside their hometown. When children or babies get ill they can deteriorate very quickly which highlights the need for accessible local healthcare. We appreciate the tireless efforts and work of the NHS, alongside the expansion of services during the day. However, we firmly believe that the return of emergency overnight provision at Newark Hospital is vital for the health and well-being of all Newark residents.

A staggering 58 per cent of people with epilepsy who responded to our recent survey have faced dental repair costs they could not afford. And over two-thirds have broken or chipped their teeth as a result of a seizure. This startling data, gathered as part of a survey we conducted in March and April 2023, lays bare the challenges facing people with epilepsy who often suffer severe damage to their teeth as a result of their medical condition. That is why the Epilepsy Society has launched FixIt4Free, our campaign calling for free dental repairs for people who have damaged teeth during a seizure.

My son is one of the death to suicide statistics for 2023. My beautiful son, Liam suffered for nearly 6 years battling with OCD, he was told he required inpatient care due to his severe life impacting OCD. This was never offered and he committed suicide on 5th May 2023. The UK has only one NHS 24 hour care facility nationally, providing 10 beds for both OCD and BDD patients. Around three quarters of a million people are thought to be living with severe, life impacting and debilitating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) here in the UK. (https://www.ocduk.org/ocd/ accessed 28th June 2023). A Cambridge article confirmed, rates of suicide attempts in OCD sufferers appear to be as high as 27%. Death-to-suicide rates in OCD sufferers are shown to be as high as 1.4%. (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bjpsych-open/article/resolving-the-discrepancies-of-suicide-risk-in-obsessivecompulsive-patients-a-review-of-incidence-rates-and-risk-factors-of-suicide-and-suicide-attempts-in-ocd/B07F6BA120B93572B83C3C8B5A744120 Published 18 June 2021, Accessed 28 June 2023). Page 2 of the referee guide for the Trustwide OCD and BDD unit, states this is the only NHS Unit to provide 24 hour care in the UK for OCD & BDD patients. Yet they only have 10 beds! (https://www.swlstg.nhs.uk/documents/related-documents/our-services/334-ocd-referrers-guide/file) Accessed 16 August 2023.

Online slots are highly addictive and highly profitable, with more people needing treatment for gambling disorder after using them than any other gambling product. Up to 1.4 million people are already addicted to gambling in the UK and every day at least one person takes their life because of gambling. The government has announced plans to reduce online slot stakes – which are currently unlimited – to either £2, £5, £10, or £15 or “none of the above”. Online slots can spin every 2.5 seconds, severely impacting mental health, meaning people can lose vast amounts very quickly, even with a £2 limit. Sign this petition and tell the government 2.5 seconds per spin is too fast and even a £2 stake limit would ruin more lives – slots must be slowed and stake limits reduced to much lower levels.