Karen Lee

By Karen Lee KarenLee

One of the first big local issues I became involved in immediately after my election last summer was the proposed closure of our Lincoln Walk-In Centre. I received emails and letters from hundreds of constituents protesting that they did not wish to see this happen, often telling me of their personal experiences and reasons why they felt it needed to remain open.

A consultation then took place. The results reinforced what has been coming through my mailbox: that people do not feel sufficiently reassured that should our walk-in centre close, there will be sufficient measures in place to replace the loss of local services.

The results of the consultation showed that 94% of respondents were opposed to closure. If this had been a meaningful consultation, you would have expected the CCG to revaluate their decision. Unfortunately, this was not the case, as they decided that they were right and the community they serve were wrong.

During the following months I spoke with local constituents about how they felt the closure would affect them, and I went on several marches protesting against the centre being closed. I also met a number of times with representatives of the local CCG, making it very clear that my constituents were not happy with the closure.

I asked for a list of all the GP practices for the whole of my constituency, alongside the times, days and location of the extra GP provision we were being told would be put in place. I still have not received the full information I requested.

I tried ringing my own GP for an appointment last month and was told nothing was available — the phone lines at my GP surgery opened that day at 8am and all appointments had gone by 8.20am. This reinforced what my constituents tell me about how difficult it can be to get a GP appointment.

In January I went out on a shift with a local ambulance crew, to see what the situation is on the ground. Statistics show ambulances regularly wait for hours to admit a patient to A&E, and it is deeply worrying that ULHT missed its A&E target for admitting or treating a patient in four hours by more than 25%.

Sadly, as an opposition MP I am not as effective in reversing the decision as I would be in government. I am however someone who will fight hard on behalf of my constituents to represent their wishes and for what I believe is right.

I decided to take the issue to the highest possible authority, and on January 31 I stood up at Prime Ministers Question Time and requested a meeting with a minister to ask for the decision to be reviewed. I was promised a meeting by David Lidington MP who was standing in for the PM, who wasn’t in the House of Commons on that day.

After waiting until early March for a date for this meeting, I stood up in the chamber and asked how I could elicit a response to my request. I finally received a letter on March 12, which repeated the same information the CCG had already given me, and advised me that “if you have any further concerns on this matter I would encourage you to raise them with the CCG.”

Unfortunately, the date for the meeting that I was assured in the chamber of the House of Commons by David Lidington MP has not be given to me, and the government have not stuck to the promise I was given on the floor of the House of Commons.

I have now written to Steve Brine MP to remind the government that I was promised a meeting, and that I still wish to have that meeting. I am insisting that they keep their word, and should they not, I will take further advice to find out if I can make this happen. It should be a matter of shame to the government that they give a promise in the House of Commons which they then renege upon.

I would finish by saying that as a nurse, I have always been proud to be part of our NHS. I have always spoken up for our NHS and I do try to work closely with ULHT. We must fight to stop what is happening. The closure of Lincoln’s Walk-In Centre is a glaring local example of how the Conservative government is running our NHS into the ground.

I promise my constituents that I will continue to hold this government to account and represent their calls for adequate local health services. I was assured at PMQs that a minister would meet me — let us see if they will keep their word.

Karen Lee was the Labour MP for Lincoln between 2017 and 2019. She is an NHS nurse and a Labour County Councillor for the Cathedral and Ermine ward of Lincoln

By Karen Lee KarenLee

2017 has been a very significant and proud year for me, the year I was elected as the Member of Parliament for Lincoln, the city where I was born and have lived all of my life.

I was a local councillor, a nurse, a trade unionist and a woman who has brought up her family before becoming an MP. I have worked hard to meet that challenge, becoming Private Parliamentary Secretary to Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell a few weeks after my election.

As well as the excitement of my election last June there are some events which will stick in my mind, and the terrible fire at Grenfell, which happened just days after my election, will remain forever in people’s minds.

Before Christmas I joined colleagues in a committee room at Westminster to listen to survivors and families of those who died in that fire tell their stories. It is an utter disgrace that families still have not been rehoused and the government must address this without delay.

I went to the site some days after the fire and left flowers from the people of Lincoln, it was a harrowing sight which made me cry.

Brexit delays

Brexit has dominated the news and I find it incredible that after almost 18 months so little progress has been made, the government’s division and lack of effective leadership is clearly a huge part of this and I fear that any deal we do eventually strike will be hindered by this obvious lack of a unity.

I was a remainer but completely accept that we will leave the EU and as MP for Lincoln my part in this is to take forward the decision made on this.

I do however feel strongly that any decision has to come back to this country’s elected Parliament to approve. We must protect jobs, the economy and workers rights and not end up with a cliff-edge Brexit.

My priorities

When I was elected I had a number of priorities which I have worked hard to take forward. It has been frustrating however as an opposition MP to be limited in what I am able to achieve.

I’m appalled at the levels of homelessness on our streets and I have worked hard with local police, representatives of both physical and mental healthcare agencies and the leader and chief executive of the City of Lincoln Council to try to address this.

This year I did not send Christmas cards but I am made personal donations to a number of charities including to those who support Lincoln’s homeless people.

I said in June that I wanted to get Lincoln’s traffic moving and have set up a Transport Taskforce. This group will bring together key stakeholders to assess the current impacts on the transport network in Lincoln; they will consider the issues, assess the priorities and identify the solutions facing the transport network in Lincoln.

The county council’s “Lincoln Transport Strategy” is due to be reviewed in 2020 after the completion of the Eastern Bypass and the work of the taskforce will help inform the current issues and highlight any solutions which can then be fed into the county council’s forward strategy.

Looking forward to 2018 I am seriously worried about the full rollout of Universal Credit in Lincoln this coming March.

The five week wait for many families will be a huge struggle and I don’t feel that encouraging claimants to borrow money to get through this period is acceptable; it is hard enough to manage debt whilst employed and I think almost impossible when on benefits.

I would urge anyone locally who needs support to contact my office and we will do our best to help you. It may well be that helping get a food voucher is all we can do, but I am genuinely afraid of what the full implementation of this appalling and utterly flawed system will do to families in Lincoln.

My year ahead

So, looking forward to 2018, I shall be working hard to get the very best for Lincoln and hold the government to account when policies they carry forward impact locally.

I’ll continue to speak up from the green benches as I did recently, challenging the fact that Lincoln has only four “place of safety” beds across Lincolnshire (serving a population of around 750,000 people) for those with mental health needs who are taken into Police custody, two of those places are in Lincoln’s Peter Hodgkinson Centre – just completely inadequate and totally unacceptable.

I shall be watching what happens with the Lincoln Walk-In Centre closely and will seek meetings with the CCG to ensure that people in Lincoln are not let down by the closure.

I will also keep on working an occasional shift at Lincoln County Hospital so that I can see first-hand what is happening in our local NHS.

To end on a positive and hopeful note, I plan to try spend a little bit more time with my family and friends and hope to get to Sincil Bank more often, I got my ticket on Boxing Day with friends, cheering the Imps on.

I’m very much looking forward to being Lincoln’s voice in Westminster in 2018 and I’d like to finish by wishing everyone in Lincoln, Skellingthorpe, Bracebridge Heath and Waddington East a very happy and peaceful New Year.

Karen Lee was the Labour MP for Lincoln between 2017 and 2019. She is an NHS nurse and a Labour County Councillor for the Cathedral and Ermine ward of Lincoln