THE HOSPITAL IS NOW REGULARLY ON `BLACK ALERT` WHICH MEANS IT CANNOT ACCEPT ANY ADMISSIONS DUE TO LACK OF AVAILABLE BEDS AND BOLTON PATIENTS FALLING ILL/BEING INJURED HAVE TO BE FERRIED TO SALFORD OR WIGAN. MEETING AT `FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE` SILVERWELL STREET BOLTON ON THURSDAY 23RD MARCH AT 7.30 : SPEAKER DR JACKIE GRUNSELL GP.

Britain’s only clinic specialising in the treatment of chronic urinary tract infections has been closed to new NHS patients for over two years. Hundreds of patients who have been referred to the clinic cannot be seen. They are being denied care and living in agony because they cannot afford to pay for private treatment. This is deeply unethical and unfair. The partial closure of the clinic has also affected its ability to recruit staff and leaves its future uncertain. The LUTS clinic run by Professor James Malone-Lee is pioneering research and treatment of chronic urinary tract infections which affect hundreds of thousands of sufferers in the UK. This includes infections that have become antibiotic resistant. Chronic UTI wrecks lives. The LUTS clinic is doing vital, life-saving work and needs your help! After suffering for a year with repeated urinary tract infections, 40-year-old Kirstin Lavender was referred to her local hospital in Yorkshire for an exploratory cystoscopy. Doctors confirmed her bladder was inflamed but didn’t know why. Following this invasive procedure, Kirstin bled for 6 months and her infection symptoms – nausea, fever, frequent urination, urgency and back pain – got so bad she became bed bound. Repeated tests showed no evidence of infection so Kirstin’s consultant diagnosed the incurable inflammatory condition, Interstitial Cystitis. All doctors could offer her was pain management. Kirstin’s life was unbearable. She had lost her health, her job and her identity. She was disabled by extreme kidney and bladder pain and facing life in a wheelchair. Finally, Kirstin persuaded her GP to refer her to Professor Malone-Lee at the LUTS clinic. Here she was diagnosed with a chronic bladder infection that had likely become embedded in her bladder lining. Her infection was complicated but, after seventeen months in treatment with the clinic, Kirstin is healthy, free of pain and has her life back. In October 2015 – after a single adverse event – the clinic was closed at a day’s notice by the Whittington Trust. Professor Malone-Lee’s patients brought a legal action against the Trust and it reopened the clinic a month later. Worryingly, 29 months later the clinic remains closed to new NHS patients. Repeated assurances that it would open in April 2017 have come to nothing. Islington Clinical Commissioning Group is responsible for commissioning NHS services in the borough & wishes to see the clinic become a specialist tertiary provider. Whilst discussions for a move to a London tertiary hospital are ongoing, a phased reopening to new patients at the clinic's current location has, in principle, been agreed by the Whittington Hospital and the local commissioning groups for the spring of 2018. However, critical timelines have been missed, causing more delay to this phased reopening date. While NHS managers stall, hundreds of patients with chronic UTI are being denied treatment. No other clinic treats this way so they have no choice but to wait – in terrible pain with debilitating symptoms - while their condition worsens.

Children are still dying from playing in the polluted area. Shortly after the leakage Union Carbide sold the plant to Dow, to avoid meeting their obligations to the people of Bhopal. Upjohn Polymer have recently sold their Isocyanate plant to Dow. Dow chemical is aiming to expand its business in PU in India. Polyurethane (PU) foams use 50% isocyanates in their manufacture.

The youth project and KRAN are based at the Shed. They work with local young people many of whom live in Harbour Ward, one of the most deprived in the area. The young people receive sex and health education, drug and alcohol awareness, and help with writing CVs and applying for jobs. They are also encouraged to take part in a range of positive activities (such as sport, art, and music technology) and are able to make friends and integrate with other local young people. The Shed is a safe, non-judgemental space where all are welcome. One young person who uses the Shed said this, "People who find it hard to fit in anywhere else come here which enables them to feel valued...it also provides them with education and teaches them that everyone is equal no matter what their background is. We wouldn't have learnt these life lessons and morals if it wasn't for the Shed and the kind-hearted staff that give up their time to make sure we feel we belong."

People are in danger of contracting hepatitis, HIV and other viruses.

The Potting Shed@Radstock is an important resource for local people who suffer with mental health and isolation issues. Closing the project will result in the loss of a valuable wellbeing project and a possible route into employment for people living in Radstock and the surrounding areas. Many people have benefited from the project. The community also benefits from the project. It makes no financial sense for the Trustees to charge the group rent and water charges to maintain the gardens voluntarily, as without the group they will need to pay a gardening contractor to do the same work. Without a Support Worker managing the project and encouraging people to attend the project is doomed to fail.

Trowbridge Birthing Centre offers crucial services for mothers and families in the area. I had two of my children at the unit, and the centre offered me a very personalised service. It is essential that women have the choice to give birth locally, and this unit is a respected and well-loved option. Trowbridge Birthing Centre also offers much needed antenatal and postnatal services for local women and babies.

There is no safe level of asbestos exposure. We don't want to wait 30 years for a cancer cluster in Cranleigh to prove that we are at risk from our drinking water. We want independent testing to be carried out now to assess the risk to public health. Almost 30% of the drinking water supply pipes in Cranleigh (highlighted in pink on the above map) are made from asbestos cement (AC), compared to a reported average of 2% throughout the rest of the Thames Water Region. The pipes are between 50 and 70 years old and frequently burst, increasing the amount of free asbestos fibres entering the drinking water supply. Evidence shows that ageing AC drinking water pipes also degrade internally over time through water friction and low pH levels, releasing free asbestos fibres into the drinking water supply. Furthermore, an increase in water pressure within these deteriorating AC pipes to accommodate significant housing development in Cranleigh will lead to more bursts and the release of more asbestos fibres. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has been testing for asbestos fibres in drinking water since 1992 due to decaying AC water mains. No one is testing our drinking water for asbestos fibres, no one is calculating the risk to residents in Cranleigh.

Our NHS is being trapped in debt by schemes called “PFIs” - private finance initiatives. These schemes lead to private companies taking up as much as one-sixth of local NHS budgets. These schemes were designed to help NHS trusts invest in big projects - but they’ve been terrible value for money. In total the NHS will have to pay £80 billion for projects worth only £13 billion. And because these contracts run for a long time, the worst is still to come. Our NHS will have to pay another £55 billion by the time the last contract ends in 2050. That’s money that will never go to cancer treatment, maternity wards, or care for the elderly. The NHS was created to save lives, not pay off debt to private companies. It’s time to end this waste and let the NHS spend money on what it does best. You can find out more information about PFIs and how they work here: Full Fact: What is the NHS paying for Private Finance Initiatives?: https://fullfact.org/health/what-nhs-paying-private-finance-initiatives/

If the plans go ahead, treasured spaces to play will be lost. Children’s play is a right not a privilege: the loss of local playgrounds would be to the detriment of our children’s health, safety and their happiness. These spaces are also used by parents and grandparents. You can read about the Council's plans to close the playgrounds here: Hertfordshire Mercury: Plans to axe North Hertfordshire play areas criticised: https://link.38degrees.org.uk/plans5e32

NHS bosses in Bedford are drawing up plans to cut and close local services. The plan is short on detail -but there’s a £311m funding gap for Milton Keynes, Bedfordshire and Luton. The plan outlines proposed major changes to specialist hospital care in order to ensure those services are 'financially sustainable'. It looks like big changes are on the table. Cuts and closures aren’t the only option. If the government gave the NHS the money it needs, it’d mean decisions like these could be made with patients in mind, rather than saving money. We're calling on our MP, Richard Fuller, to stand up for the NHS in Bedford. So far, it doesn’t look like he’s said much. But if thousands of us sign a petition asking him to demand the NHS gets more funding, it’ll show him that he needs to speak out.

NHS bosses in Lewes are drawing up plans to cut and close local services. The plan is short on detail - but there’s a £864m funding gap for Sussex and East Surrey. The plan is short of important detail on how it'll close the funding gap without cuts or closures to services. But it looks like big changes are on the table. Cuts and closures aren’t the only option. If the government gave the NHS the money it needs, it’d mean decisions like these could be made with patients in mind, rather than saving money. We're calling on our MP, Maria Caulfield, to stand up for the NHS in Lewes. So far, it doesn’t look like she’s said much. But if thousands of us sign a petition asking her to demand the NHS gets more funding, it’ll show her that she needs to speak out.