SAVE OUR LOCAL X-RAY UNIT: PLEASE SIGN BELOW The RSCH Trust that manages community services had decided to close the X-Ray unit at Milford Hospital at the end of March. Patients were to be referred to a new unit at Cranleigh instead. There was no consultation with any interested parties. Following a vigorous protest by the League of Friends, those proposals have been put on hold pending wider discussions. The LoF wants full public consultation and is recommending that the Milford unit not only stays but is open longer hours (currently 3hrs/day) and that the Cranleigh unit should be in addition to, not at the expense of, the much valued unit at Milford. Over 5000 patients a year ( both in and out patients) use the X-Ray unit at Milford (at the current 3 hours a day opening hours), giving an indication of the great need for this X-Ray unit to remain open.

Our little hospice is the only one in South Tyneside to provide palliative and End of Life care for the people of South Tyneside. We have provided excellent palliative care for 30yrs and will be a huge miss to our community. Many families in South Tyneside have had a loved one who has received treatment or has died peacefully in our care and them memories stay with these families knowing their love one had been looked after at that sad time of their lives

Private tongue tie practitioners are highly specialised service providers, taking burden off the NHS and ensuring choice for parents seeking frenotomy in the UK without having to wait sometimes in excess of 8 weeks for an NHS referal. Tongue tie can lead to damaged nipples, mastitis, breast abscess, slow weight gain, Failure to Thrive, and fussy behaviour. To essentially remove the choice of speedy access to frenotomy is outrageous. In addition to the harm caused to families private practitioners have been unable to work for over a month now causing stress, anxiety, and heavily reduced income.

This is important so that my son, Murray, and Cole, Lisa’s son, plus other children can reach the best medication to treat their epileptic syndromes / severe drug resistant epilepsy. Murray, Cole and other children are taking Whole plant cannabis oils, such as Bedrolite and Bedica, a pharmaceutical grade cannabis oil made in Holland by Bedrocan, a GMP Approved medicinal cannabis pharmaceutical company. The children who are being given whole plant cannabis oil with thc have successfully reduced or stopped dangerous life-threatening seizures.

Helium is running out on this planet. There is approximately six years' supply of helium left on Earth. After that it has gone, and there will be no more. Helium is vital to hospitals as it is needed by MRI Scanners, and without it they do not work. It is also vital to divers to dilute oxygen, so that they don't get the "bends". When helium is used in balloons, or as a narcotic, it escapes to the outer edges of the Earth's atmosphere and then escapes from the planet's gravity. This means there is a small and fast-diminishing supply of helium. Would you rather have a squeaky voice for a minute or two, or the ability to have a life-saving MRI Scan? Or fly a child's balloon rather than fix a leak under an oil rig, or to rescue 12 young Thai footballers? Helium balloons need to be banned worldwide immediately. Several countries have already banned its use apart from medical and diving use. The U.K. needs to do the same. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/helium-supply-world-shortage-run-out-recycle-mri-scanners-deep-sea-diving-balloons-a8741081.html

Patients are paying up to £9.90 for bedside televisions in Raigmore Hospital, Inverness. This is a lot of money to pay for access to TV and we believe it should either be scrapped or replaced with a free - or at least cheaper - service which includes public WiFi as the previous 25 year contract came to an end in June 2019. Patients often spend a long time in hospital and access to TV can help distract people from there hospital stay. It can also be quite lonely with many patients not getting many visitors and, with hospitals understaffed, nurses don’t have a great amount of time to spend talking to each patient. Giving patients free or affordable access to TV/WIFI will help with the social isolation that staying at hospital can create. Please sign the petition now.

The recent report, Movement for Movement, published by Dr. Aric Sigman, strongly supports the premise that recreational screen-time is increasingly displacing outdoor play among children as young as two years old, and this is having a detrimental effect on their physical and mental heath. Currently, by the age of eight, the average child will have spent one full year sitting in front of a screen and this is beginning to take a toll on our children. Based on the research outlined by Dr. Sigman in the report, we strongly support the introduction of a two-hour a day maximum recreational screen-time allowance for children and young people, and we want the government to formally introduce this as the guideline for parents. Parents and carers need a clearer guideline from the government on what constitutes acceptable levels of discretionary screen-time, and how children should balance use of screen-based devices with other activity as part of a healthy lifestyle. This is becoming more important in recent times, especially as children's recreational screen-time has increased by 50% in less than a decade. We are also losing our outdoor space, with playgrounds closing at an alarming rate, 347 closures since 2014, and many more planned. You can explore more facts and figures around how screen-time is displacing play, and what the health implications are for children on our website: https://www.api-play.org/movementformovement

The handing in of the contract at Whyburn surgery will leave our community woefully short of full-time doctors and extend waiting times beyond the, already unacceptable, level. Hucknall people deserve better.

Friends of Stanmore, a voluntary group established in 2013, have worked in partnership with Shropshire Council to maintain and enhance our beautiful green space. Successfully applying for grants including Veolia - Make a Difference used for 43 wildlife boxes and Tesco - Bags of Help used for path improvements, wildlife meadows, interpretation signage and tree planting. The green space is a substantial wildlife habitat which is important to preserve in order to protect biodiversity. The local population will lose out as they currently enjoy free and unrestricted access to a large green space for recreation. The country park forms a hub which has enhanced community integration through volunteering, wildlife identification events and a community orchard. There is a deficiency of open space in the immediate area.

It’s very simple people’s lives are at risk. “I would express my serious concerns regarding NHS England's contract with Capita. I am in the range of 50-64yr olds, every 5 years for the cervical screening test. I couldn't tell you when my last cervical screening test was prior to this year. I received a letter in November 2018 informing me that due to an administrative error there had been a delay in sending me a letter to make an appointment for my cervical screening test. I had absolutely no idea when my previous test had been & no idea how late the delay was. I absolutely rely on the NHS to ensure these appointments are timed correctly. My father died of prostate cancer, my mother had bowel cancer, my sister had breast cancer. Delays with these tests could put people's lives at risk. An administrative delay is deadly. Terminate NHS England Contract With Capita Now. Bridget Yuill 57yrs.” In November 2018 the following was reported: “Dr Richard Vautrey, the BMA GP committee chair, repeated the doctors’ union’s demand for the contractor to be stripped of its contract. “This is just the latest in a long line of failures since Capita took over a number of GP services in 2015, and yet NHS England have not demonstrated to the profession that they are serious at addressing what ultimately they are responsible for,” he said. You had a serious warning in November this year that things were seriously wrong.” Enough is enough NHS England must ensure there is no further repeat of these serious errors by stripping Capita of the GP back-office services contract immediately. Read more here https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/14/capitas-cancer-screening-blunder-hits-50000-nhs-patients Women’s lives matter.

Open letter to the people of Birmingham Mohammed JJ Khan is well-known to all in the Stirchley community as the proud owner of the distinctive £7,500 statue of a begging gorilla that sits above JJ’s Flooring Services. We, the families of Emperor Court, also live above JJ’s Flooring Services. We want the people of Birmingham to know that as the owner of the building that we live in, JJ is the one with his hand out, happy to collect rent money, and turning his back on us by refusing to discuss urgent health and safety issues. The building has let in the rain for years, and as a result our flats are damp and mouldy. Like Scrooge, unwilling to spend, JJ has resisted all efforts so far to get him to properly fix this problem. Some of our neighbours have had to move out as their children have been made ill. Unable to bear these shameful conditions any longer, we have joined the renters’ union ACORN, who now represent all families in Emperor Court. JJ has brought in a block management company to look after the building, Bright Willis. Both he and the block management company refuse to speak with ACORN, saying they will only talk to our individual landlords. Our asks are absolutely reasonable. As the people having to live in these wet conditions, speaking with one voice, we demand that JJ and Bright Willis recognise our union ACORN and meet with us regularly to ensure that our homes are maintained according to his legal obligation as freeholder. If you agree with us, then please sign our online letter of support, or why not tell JJ directly what you think? Thank you!

The people of Morpeth were promised that we would continue to have a rehab unit based in Morpeth, following on from the closure of Morpeth Cottage Hospital in 2009. This amenity has now been removed without any consultation with the greater public, most of whom up until this week have had no knowledge whatsoever that the Whalton Unit is leaving Morpeth in 2 weeks time. Consideration needs to be given to the fact that many elderly and vulnerable people will have to travel to Wansbeck Hospital via public transport, which means that they will have to catch 2 buses, including a walk and a wait, especially during the Winter months. Consideration needs to be given to whether a ward in a general hospital can meet the rehabilitation and end of life needs of elderly and vulnerable patients and their families in the same way as a small unit within the community. Removing a valued amenity without either public consultation or adequate notice, causes anxiety, fear and lack of confidence at a time when we should be seeking to build confidence and resilience within a community, especially amongst its most vulnerable members.