999 CALL for NHS: Leicester rally: the campaign must go on

Thank you to everyone who attended the 999 CALL for NHS rally in Leicester's Town Hall Square last weekend. We were able to give a warm welcome to the marchers as they arrived in the city.

The rally gave us the opportunity to show our opposition to the government's destruction of our NHS and to redouble our efforts to campaign and fight for the NHS we believe in.

To coincide with the march arriving in Leicester, the Leicester Mercury printed an open letter signed by MPs, the City Mayor, Councillors, Parliamentary Candidates, members of the Campaign Against NHS Privatisation, trade union activists and Labour Party members.

The symbolic march from Jarrow to London concludes this Saturday in London. The marchers are an inspiration to everyone who cares about our NHS and who is involved in campaigns to save our health service. I was proud to speak at Saturday's rally in Leicester and to welcome the 'Darlo Mums' and fellow marchers to the city.

We are seeing growing waiting lists; NHS staff under pressure with reducing budgets; people struggling to get a GP appointment; the A&E crisis and a crisis in mental health services. We need the NHS to move forward on the values that built it. An NHS more concerned with compassion than competition law, more concerned about care than competition and an NHS that will always be about patients and not profit.

Frontline NHS staff continue to do an excellent job and they must be allowed to get on with the jobs they love and the jobs they joined the NHS to do. Cameron and Clegg's NHS reorganisation is without any mandate and is about ideology not improving the health service.

The campaign must go on to defend and save our NHS.

The letter and full list of signatories can be read here.
Follow the 999 CALL for NHS march via their website here.

Speaking at the Leicester rally. Photo; Will Johnston.

Letter of support printed in the Leicester Mercury.

999 CALL for NHS | Letter of support

To welcome the 999 CALL for NHS march to Leicester on Saturday (30th August) Labour MPs, Councillors, members, supporters and campaigners from Leicester and Leicestershire have published a letter of support.

The 'Darlo Mums' are marching symbolically from Jarrow to London and are attracting strong support in towns and cities along their march. On Saturday the march will set off from Loughborough and will arrive in Leicester at around 4:30pm. The following day the march will depart for Market Harborough.

A rally will be held in Town Hall Square at 5:15pm on Saturday to welcome the marchers. If you care about our NHS and want to voice your opposition to the governments destruction of our health service please come along. 

You can read the full text of the letter and list of signatories here.

It has been signed by over 100 people including Leicester's Labour MPs Jon Ashworth, Liz Kendall and Keith Vaz; City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby; Deputy City Mayor Rory Palmer; Labour Parliamentary Candidates for constituencies in Leicestershire Matthew O'Callaghan, Jamie McMahon, Amanda Hack, Sundip Meghani & Sean Kelly-Walsh; East Midlands Labour MEP Glenis Willmott; Labour City and County Councillors; representatives of local Labour Constituency Parties; trade union activists; members of the local Campaign Against NHS Privatisation; and many more.

UPDATED 
More letters added to the letter of support, which can be read here.
Leicester Mercury coverage of the rally in Town Hall Square can be read here.

Morally wrong to make patients pay for hospital parking

Article for LabourList.

Over the Bank Holiday weekend the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt was trumpeting his new ‘ground rules’ to address rip-off hospital car parking. Any action to curb extortionate car parking prices at hospitals should be welcomed. However, reading these new ‘principles’ it appears they are not enforceable.

My assumption was confirmed when the Department of Health answered a tweet from me by stating that ‘NHS Trusts will be held accountable to local people and organisations that represent them e.g. HealthWatch’. This confirms that the new guidelines amount to little more than a press release. It seems that hospital trusts will be free to continue charging high prices for parking.

It is morally wrong for patients with chronic conditions attending hospital for treatment sometimes on a daily basis, and visitors, to be worrying about paying for parking. The NHS was built on the basis of treatment free at the point of access. Car parking costs contradict this and should be stopped. With many NHS trusts contracting out car parking services this is yet another example of profit over patients.

When patients have to worry about paying for parking when they attend for their treatment or when families struggle to visit loved ones in hospital because of parking charges something has gone badly wrong in our health service. The coalition government abandoned Labour’s plans to phase out hospital parking charges in 2010.

Hospital car parking prices have gone up at one in four hospitals under the Tory-led Government. Jeremey Hunt’s Bank Holiday press release does nothing to address this. We need action not words. I want to see legislation introduced to ban rip-off hospital parking and to introduce free parking at NHS hospitals for patients and visitors.

A future Labour government should act on day one to end rip-off hospital parking and set out plans to end parking charges at NHS hospitals.

This article first appeared on LabourList, 27 August 2014.

World Mental Health Day | Leicester Mercury column

Column for the Leicester Mercury for World Mental Health Day.

Thursday this week is World Mental Health Day. This is an important and timely occasion to consider the city’s approach to mental health.

Good mental health is as important as good physical health and this should be a guiding principle of all those organisations providing health services in Leicester. In recent years we have seen improvements in the NHS approach to mental health but there is much more to do. Much of what the NHS does for mental health problems does not share the same limelight as services for physical illness.

This has to change. There remains an urgent need to push mental health services beyond their historic Cinderella status in the NHS. There are two reasons why this is vital. First, because anyone accessing services for mental health problem deserves nothing but the best. I want mental health services in our NHS and in Leicester to be the best. This should not just be an expectation but our challenge to organisations providing services.

The second reason is that we need to shift perceptions and understanding of mental health in society. There remains a stubborn stigma around mental illness. Take the recent examples of two major supermarket chains selling ‘Mental Patient’ and ‘Psycho Ward’ fancy dress costumes. These offensive products led to a public backlash and both costumes were withdrawn from sale and the supermarket companies made donations to mental health charities.

This example illustrates the challenge we still face in tackling stigma and securing a more positive, mature and understanding approach to mental health in society. It remains too easy for some to slip back into clumsy language and a view of mental illness that is of a bygone era.

I am determined that here in Leicester we work to be a city that challenges stigma, properly understands mental health and has an ambitious approach to better mental health and wellbeing. Improving mental health is one of five key priorities set out in the city’s joint health and wellbeing strategy which was agreed and adopted by partners, including the city council, in April this year.

The city’s health and wellbeing board will work with partners including the city council, GPs, hospital trusts, voluntary groups and patients to make this happen. Mental health services in Leicester need to meet the expectations of patients and the whole community.

Challenging stigma and improving levels of understanding and awareness of mental illness requires a collective effort across different organisations. World Mental Health Day is a useful opportunity to reflect on the importance of this task but to also to reaffirm our commitment and determination to address it.

This column was first appeared in the Leicester Mercury, 10 October 2013.

Bold decisions are needed on health

Earlier this week I published a letter in the Leicester Mercury calling on the Government to show more ambition on public health. This follows decisions not to proceed with minimum unit alcohol pricing or plain packaging for cigarettes.

I agree with the Mercury Opinion "Decisions on public health are wrong" (July 23).

The Government's recent decisions not to proceed with minimum unit pricing for alcohol or plain packaging for cigarettes raise serious questions.

Based on these decisions it is clear this Government has no ambition when it comes to public health.

To make significant improvements to public health and to tackle long-term illness and preventable deaths, governments need to be bold and radical.

The big decisions necessary will always be controversial and generate heated debate.

Take, for example, the ban on smoking in public places. This law has had a significant and positive impact on public health.

I remember well the controversy this created at the time, as well as the criticism the then Labour Government faced for proposing this radical and reforming legislation.

In Leicester, we are determined to see public health improve.

The city council, together with its partners, will continue to invest in its successful stop smoking campaigns.

Smoking is the UK's biggest killer and Leicester has a smoking rate higher than the national average.

Our aim is to see Leicester as a smoke-free city by 2035. This is a bold and ambitious target.

Sadly, the Government appears not to share our ambition as moving to plain packaging would have had a major impact on reducing smoking, as shown by evidence from other countries.

In 2010-11, there were more than 6,000 alcohol-related hospital admissions in Leicester. Health partners in the city are determined to address this problem and ensure a good range of services for people affected by alcohol misuse.

Minimum pricing could have played a big role in reducing the misuse of alcohol.

There are significant health challenges in Leicester. The council and NHS partners are determined to see improvements and to help residents lead healthier lives.

From my discussions with organisations and residents, I know there is a shared commitment in the city to improve health and to tackle health inequalities.

While the Government shies away from the bold decisions needed on public health, locally we will continue to set out ambitious plans to improve the health of our city.

Rory Palmer
Deputy City Mayor

This letter was first published in the Leicester Mercury, 25 July 2013.

Health & Wellbeing Board's first meeting

Last week I chaired the first meeting of the city's new Health & Wellbeing Board.

Health & Wellbeing Board's were formed following the government's NHS reforms and bring together local councils, Clinical Commissioning Groups, NHS England, HealthWatch and other partners.

At this first meeting we endorsed Closing the Gap, a new health strategy for the city.

Leicester Mercury article following the first Health & Wellbeing Board meeting.

Your Britain policy discussion on health and social care

Without doubt one of the most important challenges for policy-makers today is social care.

Securing a financially sustainable model for providing care for the elderly is an urgent challenge. The ageing population is a challenge dominating the policy landscape and carries with it many complexities.  We will see dramatic increases in the numbers of people living with dementia. Expectations of care services will change overtime and people will expect care services to meet their individual needs and aspirations.

It was very interesting to discuss these issues and others with Labour Party members in Erewash recently. Local councillor Claire Neill organised a policy forum meeting to address a number of questions currently part of Labour's Policy Review.

Discussing the NHS and social care policy with
members of Erewash Labour Party.

Labour's Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham has recently begun to talk about the concept of Whole Person Care. Having read Andy's speech to the King's Fund where he unveiled this approach, and having discussed it recently with Shadow Minister Liz Kendall, I am convinced there is real merit in taking this approach forward. It could define the next era of thinking around health and social care. 

Interestingly, the meeting of Labour members in Erewash, voted overwhelmingly in favour of full integration of health and care budgets.