Despite significant ‘improvements’ to Needham Market Railway Station in recent years (costing over £700,000) access to the Ipswich-bound platform remains by steep underground stairway only – a physical challenge for passengers with limited mobility, with buggies, bikes, or heavy suitcases, and an impossibility for wheelchair users. Additionally, the new ramp from the car park to the Cambridge-bound platform is well above the maximum 1 in 12 gradient required to comply with Building Regulations, creating further significant problems for wheel chair users. Needham Market is a growing town with large new estates planned for hundreds of homes over the next few years. Abellio East Anglia Limited (trading as Greater Anglia) claims to be committed to complying with its obligations under the Equality Act 2010, and pledges to make its services accessible to all. Abellio has a ten year contract to run our trains and stations and so has no excuse not to make full access an urgent priority. Please sign our petition and support this local campaign. Thank you!

Mid & South Essex 'Success' Regime are planning to cut £400m funding to the local NHS under their 'Sustainability and Transformation Plan'. One of the options being considered is the closure of Basildon A&E department. This could mean having to travel to Southend or Broomfield for emergency treatment.

MSG (Mono Sodium Glutamate) is damaging to your health, It is particularly bad for people with Autism and other conditions. It causes Migraines, Headaches, heart palpitations and is just generally unhealthy. It is also completely unnecessary and should be banned immediately.

Fear should never be a reason not to see a doctor but the UK Government has arranged a deal between NHS Digital, the body charged with safeguarding NHS patient records, that allows the Home Office to access vulnerable patients’ information. IMPACT ON DOCTORS Doctors are subject to strict confidentiality rules, and know how important it is that their patients trust them. Yet behind their back, NHS Digital is sharing their patients’ information with the Home Office. Doctors should NOT have to tell patients that their information might be used by the Home Office to track them down at their home address. Confidentiality is compromised and doctors are being forced into being border guards. Medical bodies and doctors have slammed the deal, calling on NHS Digital to STOP breaking patient confidentiality. IMPACT ON PATIENTS Patients now have a well-founded fear that going to a GP could lead to them being tracked down by the Home Office and put into immigration detention centres. Individuals being targeted by the Home Office include people who have been trafficked to the UK and victims of torture . Doctors of the World UK’s clinics regularly see pregnant women worried that they will be arrested if the go to antenatal appointments and people with serious medical conditions who are too scared to register with a GP. OUTRAGE FROM MEDICAL BODIES AND MPS: Doctors, MPs and Medical bodies including the British Medical Association, the Royal Collage of GPs, and Health and Social Care Select Committee have slammed the deal, calling to NHS Digital to #StopSharing patient information immediately. When signing the petition, please indicate if you are a healthcare professional with the prefix Dr / Nurse / Midwife / other.

Children with autism are 7 times more likely to be excluded from school. They can be very vulnerable in incidents and often are unaware of potential dangers. As it is a spectrum some people with autism may find it more challenging to express themselves or be able to communicate their needs. It is important to get a standardised approach to raising awareness of autism to support people with autism and their families.

The Walk-In Clinic at The Third Floor Medical Centre at Lanark Road, London W9 1NZ is, and has been providing an excellent service to a large number of people in Maida Vale, West London. In the two years it has been running, thousands of patients have been treated, (up to 100 each week). Closing this clinic would therefore impact negatively on patients. Local GP practices in Maida Vale are already badly overstretched and waiting times for an appointment are often measured in weeks. I am writing to ask you to drop your plans to close the Lanark Road Third Floor Walk-in Centre. This view is shared by hundreds of local residents, from 19 to 93 years of age. I implore you to listen to them. Alternative Walk In Clinics can be two bus journeys away, so are inaccessible for many patients. This centre is easy to reach for patients, who may otherwise find it necessary to visit the A&E Department at St Mary’s Hospital. As well as being required to wait a number of hours, they would be using overstretched emergency services, (and therefore more expensive to manage). I urge you in the strongest possible terms to drop these damaging plans, for the sake of patients as well as local NHS service provision.

Time is of the essence if a stroke is suspected, only a consultant can Confirm the diagnosis. Tele networking is unreliable, it depends on the ability of the person using it. An hour can easily be wasted trying to get a visual with the remote consultant who might be sitting at home at the time of the call. If he can't see the patient via the TV he can't authorise treatment even if he is in possession of e mail of patient's brain scan and A & E staff talk to him on the phone. Better to spend extra minutes on route to a specialist than a hospital depending on contacting a consultant miles away via a tele network. Many hospitals such as Southport & Formby hospital may have a designated acute stroke unit but there is no consultant on site after 6pm or at weekends. Better then to send suspected strokes to a staffed unit. Tele networking allows consultants to get paid call or no call, for being at home.

The STPs will result in a reduction of £139.5 million by 2020, in the Doncaster and Bassetlaw Health and Social Care budget. We believe, that this reduction to our NHS funding will lead to, a loss of services, hospital closures and to an increase in early death rates in our area. It is beyond doubt that the STPs, being driven by the Government, will speed up the privatisation of more NHS services. Last January Doncaster Council said that no decision on the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw STP would be made until the 'conversation' (not consultation) by Healthwatch Doncaster and the Due Regard statement was completed. In two to four years an unelected and/or unaccountable Central STP board (based in Sheffield) will be able to ensure that your Doncaster Royal Infirmary will be privatised. The mechanism is most likely to be an Accountable Care Organisation (ACO). These ACOs will integrate services into one decision making body and have one structure with one budget, which could be and will be easily hijacked by a venture company or a private health care company such as Virgin Care et al. Please sign this petition and help to protect our NHS funding and services and stop further privatisation.

Every parent worries about their child's health and wellbeing but not many know how to save their child if needed. I believe every parent (or even grandparent) should learn basic first aid to be able to help their children. My brother died of 'cot death' at 5 weeks old in 1988, my dad knew CPR and did everything he could to save him but it was too late. I did a basic first aid course last year and had to use that knowledge when my 14 month old son choked yesterday. Luckily he is absolutely fine but if I had not attended that course it may have been a different outcome! My point is that you can't save everyone (obviously my brother couldn't be saved ) but at least my dad knew what to do to try and save him, and I was able to stop my son from choking. All parents love their children and want them to be heathy but how many would know what to do in an emergency?

I feel (like many other patients parents)that this is very important in the interests of the wellbeing of our child patient's.the trust that the children have in the consultants, nurses & admin is unequivocally solid. To be able to gain a neurological child's trust isn't easy by any means & these professionals have that knack off to a T. To water down or closed it down (as you're department put it, in to the community. ie:camhs) unbelievably stupid! Excuse that, but from my experience (many other's experience also). camhs couldn't make a decent cup of tea. They certainly wouldn't be able to cope with the influx of child patients from a closed down paediatric department....

We have real shortage of Consultants in our Hospitals, severe shortage of nurses and GPs in the community

As a member of the public I was somewhat distressed to learn that you have issued massive rent increases to GP surgeries in England which have been backdated to April 2016. According to Practice Business (3/4/2017) "The NHS lost 445 full-time GPs between September and December 2016" which are now down to 34,050 when the NHS promised to hire more. How will your rent increases encourage junior doctors to train as general practitioners? How is this supporting the health and wellbeing of all patients in England? Please retract these abhorrent rent increases immediately.