We have stood on the streets and applauded our front line NHS staff. We have wondered at their resilience in the biggest health crisis of our lifetimes. We have sympathised with them when they have fallen ill and with their families when they have died. The reward health service workers will get for their efforts is a measly 1% pay rise. Ministers seem not to recognise that those who have worked themselves into exhaustion, taken on extra shifts, faced danger every working day need a boost. With tax allowances frozen, the lowest paid staff and frontline nurses should at least get the 2.1% pay rise they were promised.
Tag: NHS
Shropshire in crisis: Health special measures and service cuts, future could be “Armageddon” – is it safe to live in Shropshire?
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust is in special measures because patient safety is being compromised. Telford A&E will close overnight for safety reasons. Rural maternity units, including Ludlow, are closed for live births. For safety reasons. Shropshire Council is axing £4 million from its public health budge despite the opposition of the director of public health. The council’s cabinet member for adult social care and public health is predicting “Armageddon” in public health services. Soon, the medics will be saying its not safe to live in Shropshire. It is beginning to feel that way.
Our health system is not healthy – nationally and locally
This article first appeared in the Ludlow Advertiser. Many people have received first class treatment from the NHS, including myself after a recent stroke. Regrettably, that is not everyone’s experience. It is no secret that our health system is creaking at the seams.
Councillor Tracey Huffer calls for STP health plan to give greater recognition to rural needs
Update 16 December 2016 Tracey’s motion was accepte by Shropshire Council. Main article 8 December 2016 Councillor Tracey Huffer is calling for a greater recognition of the needs of rural areas in the new health plan (STP) for Shropshire. She is concerned that rural areas will be marginalised as the county’s health chiefs struggle to reduce the £12.3 million deficit at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) and the £25.9 million deficit at Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group. Tracey has put forward a motion to next Thursday’s Shropshire Council meeting calling on council leaders to lobby for the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) to give a greater emphasis on health delivery in rural areas. Tracey is a practising nurse as well as a unitary councillor. She says:
More than 1,000 turned out for Save Ludlow Maternity Unit march – thank you all
It was the best of marches. It was the best of causes. On Saturday, nearly 1,200 people marched through the streets of our town in support of Ludlow Maternity Unit (LMU). March leaders Sarah Meek and Alison Hiles We could not have sent a clearer message to the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust. We want the LMU to remain open with a full suite of services.