If you live in the West Midlands and are going to fall ill, you better get on with it. Certainly, don’t leave it until 17 August because if you want an ambulance, you may not get one. That’s the apocalyptic prediction from a director of the West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS). Ambulance provision in the […]
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Onley letter: Suicide risk assessment must be improved
Sarah Olney, MP for Richmond Park, and Steve Mallen, co-founder of the Zero Suicide Alliance are the lead signatories in an open letter to Sajid Javid published in yesterday’s Times. Onley and national charities have teamed up with Philip Pirie whose son Tom, a young teacher, took his own life a day after a counsellor […]
Cooper: NHS rocked by mental health tidal wave
The Liberal Democrats have warned the NHS is at breaking point after new figures uncovered a mental health crisis sweeping through staff across health services in the UK. A Freedom of Information Request tabled by the Party to all NHS Hospital Trusts has revealed that there have been at least 8.3 million mental health sick […]
Ed Davey’s speech to Conference: Lib Dems can defeat this awful Government
A powerful selection on Ukraine, a call for Priti Patel to be sacked, a celebration of Chesham and Amersham and North Shropshire, a tribute to Lib Dem by-election stalwart Erlend Watson, a decent gag about Dick Turpin, an evisceration of the Tories over sleaze and partygate (including a call for a public enquiry into Boris […]
Johnson’s nightmare Plan B debate – Lib Dem speeches (videos)
I used to look forward to a visit to the ice cream after school. “99”, I would cry out. Now 99 has a new meaning. It is the number of Conservative that rebelled against the prime minister on his Plan B yesterday evening. That vote has weakened his authority in his party, by which I […]
Omicron: Daisy Cooper says emergency plan needed with 72 hours
There is a lot to be learnt about Omicron. We know it is spreading fast. Faster than the dominant variant Delta. We don’t yet know its health impacts, the risks of those with one, two or three doses of vaccine getting Covid-19. We don’t yet know the health impacts of Omicron, the extent it will […]
Nearly two-thirds of Shropshire A&E ambulances are delayed at hospitals – the second worst performance in country
I am a health assistant in a GP practice in south Shropshire. We are working flat out to get everyone jabbed and catch up with the backlog of patients who had not recognised or reported their conditions during the long periods of lockdown and shielding. Further north in the county, the situation is no different […]
Why waiting times matter in mental health
18 weeks. That’s the target waiting time, often missed, from referral to being seen. From now in deepest darkest December to Mid April, what an age that is. It’s hard on adults. Arguably harder when that’s how long some of our most distressed young people have to wait for support. 18 weeks or 4 months […]
Daisy Cooper: Ambulances are on high alert across England
A month ago Daisy Cooper submitted a question to the Government, and she has only just received a reply. Her question was: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many ambulance trusts have moved into REAP Level 4 in the last six weeks; and how many in total are at […]
Paul McGarry talks of his “chaotic” youth in debate on support for care leavers #ldconf
Earlier today, Conference passed a motion calling for better support for care leavers up until the age of 25. During the debate, Scottish Lib Dem Housing spokesperson Paul McGarry talked about why the measures outlined in the motion were so important and would have helped him. He describes the terrifying experience of being homeless at […]