Our local Nottingham hospitals, the Queens Medical Centre (QMC) and the Nottingham City Hospital (NCH), are struggling to provide patients with adequate care at acceptable standards. Waiting times at A&E are rising, there is a shortage of beds and many patients are either bed ‘blocking’ due to lack of suitable accommodation to move on to, or being discharged prematurely. The same is true of most hospitals throughout England.At the same time NUH Senior Management are demanding hard-pressed and overworked staff members make more cost-saving cuts in the care they provide. This is probably impossible without a drastic deterioration in the standard of patient care. Organised by Nottingham & Notts Keep Our NHS Public through 38 Degrees. Your personal information will be kept private and held securely. By submitting information you are agreeing to us keeping you informed about Nottingham & Notts Keep Our NHS Public campaigns. For further info please contact [email protected]

Protect the 10 overnight nursing beds at Babington hospital. Babington Hospital faces closure. This means up to 18 beds for rehabilitation, palliative and end-of-life care are being lost. The Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) claim that the nursing beds will be provided at Ashbourne, Ripley and Ilkeston. This presents immense problems for people who have to travel. Furthermore there are questions about capacity and there is no guarantee that these beds will remain available. The strategy is to cut 535 beds across the county in the NHS. There has been no full, open and public consultation over the closures of Babington hospital and the loss of nursed beds. Make no mistake. These nursing beds will be lost if we do not object now. Please make your voice heard by completing the questionnaire in the link below. There is little room for expression other than using the free text box at the end to reject the Engagement Process and call for a full public consultation: http://www.southernderbyshireccg.nhs.uk/have-your-say/engagements/belper-health-services/

This young boy deserves a chance like every other 6-year old of a good life, without it being hampered and potentially cut short.

If this erroneous decision is not rescinded then it would create a two tier urgent care system that would exclude, workers, visitors and those that participate in the full range of sporting fixtures that happen in the area from accessing and using the urgent care centre: putting untold pressure on KGH A&E and the East Midlands Ambulance Service.

Over the year 2016-2017 nearly 174,000 allegations were closed and 149,450 (86%) of tip offs were incorrect allegations. Over the financial years 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 332,850 cases were closed following reports by members of the public (of benefit fraud). Of these 287,950 were found to have no or little evidence to substantiate the claim (87%) We need to stop the culture of hunting out benefit fraud, as most of the time the allegations are incorrect. Going through this process has a detrimental effect on disabled and chronically ill people’s mental and physical health. We believe that if the public are to remain involved in reporting on alleged benefit fraud then they should not be allowed to do this anonymously and should have to give at least their name and national insurance number. This will help to make people think about their actions before picking up the phone, will help to reduce bogus allegations, and will make improvements to this culture of thinking people on benefits are scrounges and that disabled/chronically ill people are faking (when in fact they are probably faking being well most of the time). If someone is found to be a serial malicious reporter then they should be fined and banned from giving tip offs again. The general public have a slim view and understanding of what disability/chronic illness ‘looks like’ resulting in more reports of benefit fraud and disabled/chronically ill people being scared to leave the house for fear they’ll be reported increasing isolation in communities and fears that your neighbour is spying on your every move. Let’s stop feeding this narrative. Please help us make some positive changes to the benefits system. Together we rise! Faye Dempsey, Ellie Hicks, Alison Morton Articles of interest: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/01/spy-on-your-neighbour-britain-demonisation-benefit-claimants-disabled-people www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/benefit-fraud-public-tip-offs-legal-action-police-no-evidence-dwp-work-pensions-department-a8144096.html

Personally, I often forget to donate to food banks until I see the crate at the exit of the supermarket, and by then I'm all packed up and ready to go home. Of course, I could be more aware, and work on making it become a habit, but at the moment, I'm not very tuned in, although I'd love to be! Anyway, when I do my online grocery shop, which I am now trying to do on a more regular basis, I thought there was a significant change that could be made which would allow me to donate to food banks whilst doing the shop. For example, when I get my two tins of tuna for a discounted price, I could add one of those tins of tuna into a separate 'food bank' list. Rather than delivering these items to me, they could go straight into a food bank deposit system. Obviously it would need to be a simple user interface that doesn't get mixed up and confuse people and suddenly you receive the items you were trying to donate and the food bank receives the full order... So it could be quite difficult to do (I've got no idea, I don't work in systems!). Anyway, this is just an idea that I believe could work really well and could result in some valuable relationships between supermarkets and those in need.

We need answers from all parties involved. The school is a big part of our community.

I signed up to make my GP surgery, the new NHS pilot called GP at Hand. There are adverts for the service all over the tube. As a woman over 25, we need smear tests to prevent cervical cancer. It's a 10 minute test that GP practices offer, often administered by a nurse. 'GP at Hand' only have one nurse for smear tests in the whole of London. They're based in far west London (Fulham), more than an hours' journey for most of us registered on the service. It's outrageous that NHS England have given them a contract when their provision for women is dangerously low. Just last week a woman died from cervical cancer when she was 36 having never had a smear test. Around 3,000 cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed each year in the UK and the simple 10-minute test could save lives. A GP service only offering this service a 2 hour journey away is insane. Please sign the petition demanding NHS England cancel the contract unless GP at Hand add more options for smear tests in London.

For several years Stratford Shopping Centre have stayed open 24hrs a day allowing for those whom are homeless to have somewhere dry and secure to shelter/sleep during the night. However as of today (29/01/2018) they have handed orders to all those currently staying in the centre, ordering them to leave with immediate effect. This means the homeless people are being forced out on to the streets in these extreme weathers, some of these people don’t even own a sleeping bag or adequate warm clothing which means they are at high risk of falling extremely ill. We are petitioning for Stratford Centre/Newham Council to rethink their decision and to continue allowing for our homeless friends to continuing using Stratford as a secure place for them to be during the night as many of them are highly vulnerable and some are also very elderly. Newham Council urgently need to support these homeless people with their housing/accommodation as these people cannot continue living on the streets.

Dr Glen has renewed her application to add Plains, Caldercruix and Hillend to her practice area and is hoping to achieve this by August 2018 with agreement from Lanarkshire NHS. The Primary Care Department of NHS Lanarkshire gave assurances in Caldercruix in January 2014 at a public meeting that there would continue to be GP services in Caldercruix at dedicated premises.The present service is well short of the assurances given to Alex Neil MSP in 2014 about a commitment to having a GP in the village. Assurances were also given to the Scottish Government that a GP would be in place in the village. The NHS is under pressure and Dr Glen is able to offer appointments in a permanent building with nursing and administrative support all ready to run for the benefit of local villages.

Bakkavor Alresford Salads have applied to the Environment Agency for a renewal licence to continue to put into the river their daily factory wash down described as TRADE EFFLUENT containing a cocktail of powerful chemicals to replace and supposedly improve on the chlorine based biocide they have been using for years. Their impenetrable application can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/so24-9dz-bakkavor-foods-limited-environmental-permit-application-advertisement This application is important to the river and the environment and raises many questions, some of which are listed below; Is the quality of the river Itchen important? YES. It is protected by being in a Site Special Scientific Interest and has the highest European rating as a Special Area of Conservation. Has the Environment Agency, charged with protection of this pristine and iconic river, been successful over the last twenty years? NO. Alresford Pond is now full of man made chemicals and the Upper Itchen fails water quality objectives under the Water Framework Directive and falls short of conservation objectives under the EU Habitats Directive. How does the Upper Itchen compare with other rivers? VERY BADLY. Directly comparable sampling has shown that the Upper Itchen carries about 5% of the shrimp population in the upper river Meon which has no washing plant. This is indicative of what is happening to all fly and bug life in the Itchen. Is the water quality in the Itchen improving? There is NO EVIDENCE that it is and much evidence of a thirty year uninterrupted decline. Does polluting the river matter? YES. It matters to all aquatic life from sticklebacks to trout and much bird life from king fishers to swifts. Does chlorine discharged from the factory dissipate? YES after years if discontinued. If this licence renewal is refused is there an alternative? YES. The factory should connect to the sewer for all contaminated water. Has the Environment Agency required any other company to do this? YES. The salad washing plant at St Mary Bourne was obliged to make this connection years ago despite the Bourne not having the environmental protection of the Itchen.. Can the company afford the cost of making the connection? YES. The owners Bakkovor, a multinational company, has an income of £1.7billion a year. If the contaminated factory discharge went to the sewer would it resolve the river’s pollution problem? Probably not but it would be a first step. IF YOU BELIEVE THAT THIS LICENCE SHOULD NOT BE ISSUED BY THE ENVIRONMENT AGENCY YOU SHOULD WRITE TO: ENVIRONMENT AGENCY, Permitting and Support Centre, WQ Team, Quadrant 2, 99 Parkway Avenue, SHEFFIELD , S9 4WF Although not directly relevant to this licence you might also ask yourself whether you think that the pesticides, insecticides, fertilizer, soil or whatever, should not be washed off these salad vegetables in the various countries of their origin rather than trucked or flown and trucked to Alresford to be washed into the pure spring water of the River Itchen.

Miss Tina’s is being asked to pay full Business Rent on our facilities. Unfortunately, as a not-for-profit organisation, this will result in the closure of Miss Tina’s in Barmston. Please could you show your support for keeping Miss Tina’s open by signing the petition to reduce our rent.