GOOD AFTERNOON and welcome to my South West Surrey update No.165 Christmas parties, care home private equity scandals, Omicron Plan B plus a meeting with US climate change envoy John Kerry mean it has been an eventful last full week before the Parliamentary recess.
NO PARTY THIS TIME The Prime Minister has rightly apologised for the offensive attitude on display in the video of his staff joking about a Downing Street Christmas party. He has also ordered an inquiry by the Cabinet Secretary into whether any rules were broken and pledged to hand over any information to the police and Crown Prosecution Service. Allegra Stratton, who was the PM’s Spokesperson at the time (and someone I happen to like and have great respect for as a journalist) has done the honourable thing and resigned from government. The video suggests there was a party which is shocking enough, but the jokey attitude to breaking the rules was what made many people (including Conservatives inside and outside the government) so angry. We now need to get back to saving as many lives as we can during the Omicron wave and this whole business has unhelpfully stopped Ministers from publicising the booster programme.
NHS PREPARATIONS? We now need to be preparing the NHS for worst case scenarios. We just cannot have another 45,000 people not starting cancer treatment as happened last year or thousands dying from heart attacks and strokes at home from fear of going to their local hospital. I said in the Commons that “when we switch the NHS on for omicron we must not switch other services off”. But with 13,000 operations canceled in the last two months alone the NHS is clearly already struggling so this is going to be very tough whatever the news on Omicron.
NOT IS IT JUST THE PANDEMIC 1 Remember that climate change thing we were talking about last month? We made progress but didn’t quite get there so caught up yesterday with John Kerry currently the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, to discuss how vital it is to ensure international tensions with China don’t derail our attempts at limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.
NOR IS IT JUST THE PANDEMIC 2 As democracies battle the pandemic, autocracies smell opportunity. I have written in the Herald this week about the imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi and how Western Powers need to step up to the plate and defend the values we believe in. [will add link later]
OTHER HEALTH STORIES 1 The Health and Social Care Select Committee has published a report into the provision of mental health services for young people this morning. We are worried that despite some progress things could be slipping due to the increase in demand caused by the pandemic. It is unacceptable that more than half of young people with a diagnosable condition pre-pandemic do not receive the mental health support they need and that we continue to detain people in secure accommodation who would be better off in the community. One answer is to roll out the support provided through schools faster as these mental health support teams really do make a difference.
OTHER HEALTH STORIES 2 Is private equity destroying our care home sector? This is the subject of a Panorama programme on Monday which discovered that Four Seasons had debt of £29,000 per bed before it went into administration and HC One declared a £4.8m dividend 2 days after asking councils for more Covid help. Mischal Husain interviewed me about this on Monday’s Today Programme (0730 slot).
The key number to remember for anyone with pandemic-related difficulties remains 0300 200 1008 the Surrey Helpline run by Surrey County Council (Mon-Fri 9 am to 5 pm). See my list of local groups working to support vulnerable residents here.
SW SURREY STORIES
SURGERY UPDATE Yesterday I spoke to a young woman from Haslemere with a very disturbing story about how her drink was spiked. The drug clashed with steroids she had been taking for long covid meaning she had terrible symptoms including thunderclap headaches. Her concerns were firstly that the NHS doesn't routinely take toxicology tests for people going into A & E so we are not measuring the scale of the problem; also that she was constantly asked if she had had 'one too many' by the ambulance service, making it very intimidating for her to pursue her case further. She wants NHS staff to be better trained and better information to be made available on self-care for patients, so I will write to Sajid Javid flagging both those points. She is also concerned that children are not alerted to these dangers at school, something I will bring up with Nadhim Zahawi. Finally she also wants the media to stop advertising the impunity of perpetrators which she fears is encouraging more of it and broader understanding that this is not a 'woman's issue' but increasingly a problem in the LGBT community where there is particular stigma about coming forward.
I then spoke to two very distressing cases of people in hotel quarantine who are being very shabbily looked after. One woman from Hambledon has chronic gastritis, has had no heating or hot water and is low on medication. Another man from Farnham is a diabetic who is not being supplied the special food he requires, so has been having hypos and sugar lows. His room has cockroaches which he sent me pictures of. Totally outrageous frankly in this day and age - no other way to describe it. So I have raised it this week with the vaccines minister Maggie Throup MP both by message and in person. She assures me she is on the case but two days later nothing appears to have improved so I will keep at it. I am also trying to get through to the manager of the Holiday Inn Express where they are staying, but no reply so far..
RIGHT AT HOME After the success of last year, Right at Home are once again running their Christmas Lunch initiative, where volunteers make an extra portion of their lunch and deliver this to a person in need. Right at Home matches volunteers to a person in need, aiming to keep this within a 5 mile radius, a week or so before Christmas. They provide everything needed to transport the meals and there are usually extras like Christmas cards from a local school and donations from Waitrose. It is a super easy way to really make a difference to someone this Christmas when loneliness and isolation feels emphasised. Click here to sign up. They also want to know if you know someone in need of a Christmas lunch - if so, you can make a referral here.
SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY Last Saturday, it was great to support the fabulous Eliza’s Teashop at Secretts in Milford, along with meeting Mel the manager in the amazing Secretts Christmas marquee. To wrap up the day I took my puppy Poppy to have her nails clipped at the wonderful Animal Magic in Church Street Godalming (thank you Erin for keeping Poppy so calm)! Earlier this year, the Chancellor announced the Help to Grow initiative, with two new business support schemes to support growth among the UK’s small and medium sized businesses. Click on the link if you want to register your business.
READING FOR REFUGEES The Spire Church has started up a weekly (10-11am on Tuesdays) ‘reading for refugees’ group to help those who have recently arrived in the UK to learn English for free. If you know of anyone who could benefit from attending this group, please email Gill at: [email protected].
AND FINALLY Thanks again to Haslemere Mayor Simon Dear, The Town Council, Melanie Odell, and several other volunteers for another fantastic Haslemere Christmas Fair - fun for all the family, and the spiced mulled cider was a winner!
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