January 26, 2017 8.24 am
This story is over 66 months old
Nic Dakin: Government needs to take responsibility for NHS crisis, not blame others
If it’s not too far into 2017 to say it, Happy New Year to everyone! Everything seems back in full swing now with politics on both sides of the Atlantic continuing to read more interestingly than fiction! The thing I am most concerned about at the moment is the continued pressure on local health services.…
If it’s not too far into 2017 to say it, Happy New Year to everyone! Everything seems back in full swing now with politics on both sides of the Atlantic continuing to read more interestingly than fiction!
The thing I am most concerned about at the moment is the continued pressure on local health services.
With the British Red Cross saying there’s a ‘humanitarian crisis’ in UK hospitals it needs to be taken seriously.
It’s clear that we are not the only area struggling with pressure on our system.
In meetings with North Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group it’s clear everyone is trying their very best to make a system under real pressure work. But with an ever ageing population and insufficient resources our national and local health systems are creaking.
As a local GP said to me there really just needs to be more money put into health if it is to do everything we want it to.
Only last week Scunthorpe General Hospital had to cancel a number of appointments as it ran out of beds to put people in who were turning up needing treatment.
Thankfully within a day – thanks to the incredible work of staff – they were able to get back to something resembling normal service.
Nationally A&E departments have turned patients away more than 140 times between December 1, 2016 and January 1, 2017. And one day last month 15 hospitals ran out of beds with elderly patients languishing on trolleys in corridors, sometimes for over 24 hours.
We will have all seen the picture of a child being treated on two plastic chairs pushed together in a corridor. The problems in the NHS need urgent action.
Rather than stepping up to the plate and taking action ministers have blamed patients for the troubles.
Then the Prime Minister blamed the NHS England boss Simon Stevens and now, astonishingly, she is blames family doctors.
Frankly, rather that pointing the finger at others, the Conservative government needs to take responsibility for this crisis.
After all they inherited an NHS with the patient highest satisfaction rates ever and it is their cuts to adult social care that has put the very real pressure onto hospital discharges that is a large part of the cause of the current crisis.
And it doesn’t make any sense to me for the government to be cutting community pharmacy budgets.
This is the part of the health service closest to patients that investment in is likely to be well rewarded.
One of the reasons people voted to leave the EU was because of the promise to give £350 million a week to the NHS. This does not seem to be forthcoming!
So I am pleased that Labour is calling on the government to bring forward the £700 million of social care funding planned for 2019-20 now and to pledge a new funding settlement for health and social care in the Budget in March.
It’s time to listen to the public and take action.
Nic Dakin is the Labour Member of Parliament for Scunthorpe
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We want to speak to three individuals in relation to a burglary which took place at Tattershall Farm Park at around 1.45am in the early hours of Monday, 8 August.
A fence was broken to gain access to the grounds, and a rear door to the workshop was forced open. Numerous power tools and equipment were stolen, including a red quad bike, to the value of around £25,000.
The escape was made via the same route across a field to the rear and along Marsh Lane, Tattershall using two-barrel carts from the site to transport the stolen goods down the lane.
If you know these individuals, or you have any further information that will help with our investigation please get in touch.
Please email [email protected] quoting ‘Incident 86 of 8 August’ in the subject line.
Or call 101 quoting Incident 86 of 8 August.
If you wish to remain anonymous you can report any information via CrimeStoppers by calling 0800 555 111.
Doddington Hall Farm Shop near Lincoln will feature in a new Channel 5 series which celebrates the British love of a good farm shop.
Episode one of ‘Britain’s Poshest Farm Shop’ is due to air on Channel 5 at 8pm on Friday, August 12. Doddington Hall features throughout episode 1 alongside farm shops in North Wales and Devon.
The two-part series is narrated by Patricia Hodge and described as “a warm and touching look at why we all love a farm shop, the characters that inhabit them and the people behind the scenes that work so hard to create outstanding produce.”
Owner Claire Birch in the Kitchen Garden, a stone’s throw from the Farm Shop.
Doddington Farm Shop Kitchen Garden display.
Doddington Hall said its award-winning farm shop wasn’t built on being ‘posh, but was “born out of a passion to provide our customers with good quality, seasonal, local food.”
Doddington Hall said Production company Out of the Blue TV filmed “on a momentous day when the cows were being put out to pasture for the first time after the winter so they were gambolling in the sunshine.”
Doddington Farm Shop Kitchen Garden display.
Owners Claire Birch & James Birch and stockman Hari Limbu.
Since 2006, the Elizabethan Doddington Hall has been the much-loved family home of Claire and James Birch. Claire’s family have lived in the Hall for over 190 years, devoting themselves to the upkeep, repair and progression of the Doddington Estate.
After a 50 year absence, the formerly neglected two-acre walled Kitchen Garden was restored to its former glory in 2007, inspiring the opening of the Farm Shop followed by the Cafe. Just a stone’s throw from the Hall, it provides an abundance of fruit, vegetables, salads and herbs which take centre stage in the Farm Shop and on Doddington Hall’s menus.
Owner Claire Birch in her kitchen in Doddington Hall, giving a sneaky peek into the ancient recipe archive.
Owner Claire Birch with a Kitchen Garden tromboncino squash.
Over the last 16 years, Claire and James have developed the Farm Shop, Bike Shop, Café, Coffee Shop, Restaurant, Home Store, Country Clothing Store, Holiday Cottages, Bauble Barn, Christmas Tree sales, Weddings and Events businesses; increased public access and organised popular concerts and exhibitions with all proceeds going towards the upkeep and conservation of the historic Hall and Gardens.
This year, the Doddington Hall Conservation Charity secured National Lottery Heritage Funding to develop ‘Wilder Connections’, a project to connect people with nature at Wilder Doddington.
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