Busy Fridays...

Last Friday was a busy day, even by my standards...

It started with an excellent coffee morning in Branxton with local members and friends, with delicious cakes for sale. These are always a great opportunity to catch up with hard working activists as well as have a chance to meet new supporters in any locality. Being in a rural corner, I discussed at some length the vagaries of the weather in the Till valley, discovering that (even though it had rained 7mm at my house the night before) there had not been enough rain last week for the potato crops and the farmers were having to water. After last Autumn's floods, it is hard to imagine that the valley is now a bit on the dry side.

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Then I headed South to North Tyneside for some lobbying of regional transport chiefs and experts at a seminar organised by the North East Economic Forum. The aims of the North East Transport Futures seminar are to support increased economic activity, business competitiveness and sustainable communities in the region. It is crucial that local campaigners like me take the opportunity to lobby regional transport chiefs and the Highways Agency directly on the need for dualling the A1 throughout Northumberland. Future priorities for investment and action were being discussed and I continue to make the case for dualling the A1 for the future economic benefit of Northumberland and South East Scotland. This new road will bring business, jobs and wealth to our County.

I was particularly interested to listen to the Highways Agency representatives. They made it clear that if the North East doesn’t start to speak with a determined voice about its top priorities, then the Department for Transport will simply not listen to us because other regions are offering much clearer visions. It is so important that we continue to press Northumberland county Council to put together the economic case for dualling the A1. All members of the Regional Transport Board must support this road as a key part of Northumberland’s future as a County connected to its region and the country.

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This week I will be launching a wide reaching survey in Berwick-upon-Tweed about the proposed new community hospital in Berwick. The Hospital Trust is currently consulting the public on the new Emergency Care Hospital at Cramlington. I attended the public consultation meeting about the proposals at the Maltings last week.

I believe that the new Cramlington A&E hospital being proposed will give us all a state-of-the-art medical facility for the most serious and life threatening illnesses and trauma. The meeting showed that although people back the prospect of 21st century medical care, there is anxiety about the distance of the proposed emergency hospital from Berwick. Several residents I have spoken to are anxious to see our Ambulance service get enough funding and support, so that urgent cases get to hospital quickly enough.

So, last Friday I visited the Headquarters of the North East Ambulance Service to find out how they plan to meet the needs of the rural Northern part of Northumberland. I have spoken with the ambulance service and am reassured that it will take no longer to get patients to the new hospital than it currently takes to get to the Wansbeck. The difference will be that instead of seeing a junior doctor, there will be consultants on call 24/7 to provide the most advanced and appropriate medical care for our families. I will continue to work with the Ambulance Service and have asked for information on how many Category A incidents are reached within 8 minutes in the Berwick area.

The proposal for the Cramlington hospital also includes funding for a new community hospital in Berwick. As the location of the Berwick hospital has not yet been decided, I am surveying local people to ask their views on where they would prefer it to be built and what services they would like to see it offer.

I will use my survey campaign to open the consultation process up and ensure that local people with ideas to bring to this debate are heard.

Amble Day Care

I have just spent a couple of hours at the Amble Day Care Centre. What a lovely team of staff, looking after and helping a group of elderly who would otherwise all of them be stuck in their homes from week to week with no outlet. Interestingly, when I asked each of the users what they liked best about the centre, they said the care of the staff and the fact that it gave their husband or wife (or daughter or son) some time off from looking after them full time.

They were all really fearful of this sudden and unexpected consultation which proposes to close down the centre, and to give them each a "personal budget" (amount not specified) which they would be able to spend "as they wish". What I find so irritating and unthought through about the consultation is that it implies that these users - who are very frail and housebound apart from their trips to their local Day Care centre - have lots of choices available to them if only they had control of the cash. This just is blatantly not the case for those I met today. I have no doubt that there are others in the other 6 day care centres threatened with closure with very similar circumstances which do not offer wide options.

I want to know a lot more from the Lib Dem Councillor driving this process - what will these users get instead, what are the running costs now of each of the threatened day care centres, what alternative services would the council provide for our most vulnerable elderly instead? Or do they intend to just leave them to rot in their own homes behind closed doors, with no opportunity for company and basic things like a good, hot meal?

Tomorrow is the Public Meeting in Amble - Lets hope that the Lib Dem political leadership turn up to answer some of these questions. 6pm Social Club, Bede Street. Please come and support us if you can.

Fishing Sunday

The weather held up, we managed to play a game of tennis with friends and my son got in some casting practise for his fishing outing with his Granny tomorrow. Interestingly, my 8 year old daughter then decided she would like to have a go and turned out to be a natural. She's now keen to go off and find out what this is all about!

I am hopeless at fishing, and would much rather read a book or do some drawings of my surroundings than thrash the water, but its always great to see young people enthused by something which could become a lifelong hobby.

MY attention is, perhaps unsurprisingly, more focused on the impending elections for the new Speaker of the House of Commons which takes place tomorrow. Will my MP, Sir Alan Beith, succeed in winning the title, second time around? I have my doubts, but elections are unpredicatable things - the challenge is whether as Speaker he would be able to bring the change we so desperately need for Northumberland. We can but wait and see how our MPs vote tomorrow. Keep you posted!

The LAst of my hospital area consultation

I went to the third consultation on the proposed new hospital this evening - tonight was in Rothbury. Interestingly, much like Alnwick last night, the issues were not so anxiously raised, there seemed to be a relatively good understanding of the future clinical benefits for patients of having 24/7 consultancy on call for serious A&E. The ever present issue of ambulance cover was raised here too, and I will be tackling the Ambulance Service next week accordingly. If there isn't a real issue, and it's just perception, then I really hope they will be willing to prove that to me with the raw data.

And now I am making sandwiches for our picnic tomorrow as we all head off to my son's Annual Speech and Sports Day - let's hope the weather is fine unlike last year, when the heavens opened just before the first race. We had at least eaten our picnic in the sun before the rains came! I really hope there is no Mum's race - I feel that I have done my time with those already in the last 10 years. There must be an official retiring age - and I'm definitely at it. It's so undignified running next to mums who go to the gym three times a week! Wish me luck....

Hospitals Still On The Agenda

The consultation meeting at the Maltings last night was quite lively, as the issues of distance and accessibility to the new proposed A&E hospital at Cramlington were liberally aired. I completely understand the Berwicker's view that any hospital should be near Berwick, but I worry that the important message that we will be getting a much better, consistent clinical care when we are in really critical health situations is lost to the continual demands for more ambulances and a decent dualled A1.

The question of a decent dualled A1 is one that I campaign on remorselessly, with some small successes to date. The issue of adequate ambulance and paramedic cover for North Northumberland also continues to challenge. In fact I have been invited to the hub of our NE Ambulance Service next week to find out more and ask difficult questions about this life-threatening issue.

I dont think that we are getting a clear message yet from the commissioners - North of Tyne PCT - about how they propose to best support the new hospital proposals with the right and adequate ambulance cover. I will keep bashing away at them until we DO get a satisfactory result.

So tonight its off to Alnwick for the consultation on the new hospital with those local residents. I am hoping that there will be a representative from the PCT who can actually answer some of my questions on ambulances, rather than Communications Team people who are just "processing" the consultation process. I would like to think they could send someone to talk to us - the general public who pay our taxes for our healthcare - who has some authority in the decision-making process. Or is that too much to ask for?

Hospital Consulting

I seem to be getting to grips with all that filing that hadn't got done during the election campaign, which is a relief! But elections are raelly just a distraction from the real issues which continue around us. Tonight I will be going to the Consultation Meeting at the Maltings in Berwick about the proposals for the new A&E hospital which our hospital trust is proposing to build for us. This is a really exciting plan for a step change in the level of emergency care which will be available to us all in Northumberland.

I am coming across a lot of anxiety - like with anything new - from local people so I thought I would set out why I think this is a good investment for us.

Firstly, existing emergency care facilities in North Northumberland will not be scaled back to accommodate the proposals. The hospital’s existing facilities in Alnwick and Berwick will be improved by this package and not downgraded. At present, anyone in North Northumberland calling an ambulance for a life-threatening illness will be taken either to the Wansbeck (not the smoothest roads from the A1 as anyone who has been in the ambulance will confirm) or into Newcastle depending on the injury.

In future, the ambulance service will be have the opportunity to take life-threatening emergencies to the new hospital at Cramlington rather than Wansbeck. This will mean that for “non-emergency” A&E at Wansbeck we will get a reduction in our waiting times.

Secondly, whilst getting to a hospital quickly is clearly important, the medical expertise, drugs and equipment necessary for immediate treatment of cardiac, stroke and respiratory emergencies are available in our ambulances. I am currently lobbying the Trust to make sure that our ambulance services get the funding they need to get our patients quickly and safely to the right hospital.

Thirdly, the new emergency facility in Cramlington is part of a package of funding that will provide us with a new Community Hospital in Berwick. This will allow us to see even more services like the chemo unit, the MRI and CT mobile scanners and other consultant led activities to happen in Berwick. This will save many more patients the long journey to the Wansbeck and back.

Back to Work!

The election count for the Euro elections was over by 10pm last night, a great set of results for us both in the North East and nationally. Here in the North East our share of the vote went up to 19.8%, whilst the Lib Dems and Labour fell to 17.6% and 25% respectively. We have also made some gains locally in Northumberland with new parish councillors in Bedlington and Cramlington. Local Conservatives just fighting for their lcoal patch, making sure people are looked after.

So Monday morning, back to normal - well, nearly, just missing quite a few hours sleep! I was invited to be briefed this morning by ONE North East's Energy Team about the offshore wind industry work going on. My visit to NaREC with Greg Clark MP a fortnight ago has triggered this, and so I am now getting to grips with all the challenges and opportunities this new renewables market offers for Northumberland. There is much to do, lots of hurdles to overcome, but real long term economic development is there to be had if we get it right at a regional and national level.

Then onto Wansbeck Hospital for discussions with the Board about the consultation on the proposed new A&E hospital at Cramlington. I continue to ensure that the plans for Berwick's new community hospital do not slip down the list in all the activity and consultations. The benefit of having external Governors as part of the whole Foundation Trust means that we really do have a voice and the chance to influence the hospital's plans. Let's hope the 2013 plan for the new Berwick Hospital will be met. This is going to be a great boost to Berwickers.

Home for tea with my 8 year old and the need to collapse in a heap! I love the thrill of election counts, of watching the ballot papers mount up in big piles, of seeing all our hard work to encourage voters to participate right in front of our eyes. But all that adrenaline is completely draining and now I am going for a long overdue full night's sleep!

What A Week!

Well, I know they say a week is a long time in politics, but this week has defied all past records in my lifetime. As I was knocking on doors in the run up to the local and European elections this week, and then running our committee room on thursday, election day itself, the world of national politics was doing its level best to destroy all ordinary voters' confidence in any of us.

I really felt for voters who said to me "I want to vote but I just dont know who to vote for, its just all so depressing". The turnout for the North East ended up at 33.3%, about average for Euro elections, but still a low figure at such an important time in our political cycle to be heard.

We now await Sunday night when we will be able to count the euro vote. In the meantime, Conservatives have taken local council seats for the first time EVER in Cramlington and Bedlington, a reflection of the hard work and passion of local people for their communities. And Linda Arkley has won the Mayoralty for the Conservatives in North Tyneside. The Labour stranglehold on the North East is weakening thanks to the hard work and commitment of local Conservatives.