Shrewsbury Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate

I want a change of government, I want to change our politicians, I want a change the way we run our country. I am prepared to work for that change and to be part of that change. If you want to be part of it too and if  you are interested in what the Liberal Democrats have to offer, then please read on.

Local Campaigner Dr Charles West today welcomed Liberal Democrats new policy to rebalance the economy.

Dr West said: "The industrial revolution started in Shropshire, and Shrewsbury still has some valuable engineering industries, but the decline of manufacturing has affected Shrewsbury like everywhere else.

"We need a new generation of engineers and a new culture that values the manufacturing businesses that we have. We need to make it easier for manufacturers to move into new, growing areas of the economy, and invest in the development of technologies for the future. We face a climate emergency that must be tackled in the next parliament. The migration of our economy to a reduced-carbon model will require much development work, and many jobs could be created modernising buildings, developing the railways and building components for renewable power generation."

Speaking at their Spring Conference in Birmingham on Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg outlined his plans for a fair economy. In his speech to conference delegates, he said:

"The recession has hurt millions of families. But the problems run deeper than just the immediate crisis. For too long, a succession of Conservative and Labour Governments have been obsessed about looking after just one square mile – the City of London. It’s time to invest in the other 100,000 square miles of Britain, creating jobs and growth that lasts for every town, city and village of this country.

"Britain is the nation of Alexander Graham Bell, Isaac Newton, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. We have to harness that inventive spirit once again. We have been blinded for too long by the glitz of the financial services sector. Blinded to the real, solid virtue of making things. It has to change. Under the Liberal Democrats, it will change. No longer just betting on things. We will start Britain building things again."

In two policy motions at the conference, the party proposed measures to support the development of green jobs and infrastructure, including the creation of regional stock exchanges and local enterprise funds, which would facilitate investment in local businesses. They also propose that the UK’s banking system should separate the investment and retail banks.

Local GP and prospective parliamentary candidate Dr Charles West will be encouraging smokers in Shrewsbury to break free and kick the habit for No Smoking Day (10^th March).  Now in its 27^th year, No Smoking Day encourages smokers to quit smoking, save thousands of pounds and take the opportunity to find out about the support available.

Dr West supported this year’s No Smoking Day campaign, saying: “No Smoking Day is a brilliant campaign to help and support smokers who want to stop smoking.  I’d like to encourage smokers in Shrewsbury to break free on No Smoking Day and give up cigarettes for good!  As a doctor, I know all too well the effects on health which smoking can have. In the current economic climate, it also makes financial sense.  If you stop smoking today, within a month you could be £180 better off.

“For help and advice on how to stop smoking and increase your chances of success by up to four times, contact the Help 2 Quit office on 01743 366940 or via email to h2q@shropshirepct.nhs.uk.”

Thousands of No Smoking Day events are taking place all over the UK, including customised Double-Decker Buses, ashtray amnesties, interactive stalls, dance displays and world record attempts. Many sports activities including local football clubs are getting involved.  Stop smoking services, fire and rescue services, local councils, supermarkets, and many more are out and about to help and support smokers who are ready to break free!

Duncan Bannatyne, No Smoking Day President, entrepreneur and Dragons’ Den star said: “Quitting smoking isn’t always easy. Most of the nine million UK smokers say they’d like to quit, and many have tried to stop several times over the last year.

“If you’ve tried and failed a few times, it’s easy to give up hope. But you’ll find few ex-smokers that quit the habit on their first attempt. So pick yourself up, dust yourself down and believe that this time you really can do it!”

For more information about No Smoking Day go to www.nosmokingday.org.uk

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Special Report by Dr Charles West

Public concern is mounting about  local NHS services.  It has been revealed that the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital missed the government target for 18 week treatment in December and probably missed it in January as well.

As a result of severe winter pressure on beds, surgical admissions have had to be cancelled and some patients have waited for hours for a bed to become available. 
What is more the hospital is too full.  To allow for efficient running of a hospital the maximum recommended occupancy is 85%.  This should allow well-ordered admission and discharge, enable cleaning between patients, and ensure that patients are in the most appropriate ward.  The RSH is running at 98.8% occupancy.

And now the Health boss Tom Taylor has resigned.  Tom Taylor has seen the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals through a difficult period, but his departure at this time will present additional difficulties for the hospital service locally.

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It was with considerable regret that I heard the news that Tom Taylor is to leave his post as chief executive of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust.

Tom Taylor has been a good friend to the NHS in Shropshire and steered the hospitals through a difficult time. He has worked hard to maintain morale and improve standards.

Our hospital services face very significant challenges in the next few years and the new chief executive will need tact, skill and all the support that we can offer.

I would like to wish Tom Taylor every success in his new Job.

Charles West

Shrewsbury and Atcham Liberal Democrats

I have to confess that I smiled when I read that radio broadcasters were requesting a delay to the switch off of analogue radio.

The Government’s proposal to makes us all switch over to digital radio was always a badly thought out plan. Large parts of Shropshire cannot receive digital radio signals and even if many more radio masts were erected there would still be some who would never be able to get a signal.

It is estimated that some 200 million radios, including nearly all car radios, would become useless if analogue broadcasts were stopped. So these radios will either be thrown away, causing chemical pollution or we will have to pay someone to dismantle them.

Digital radios also use more power and those who listen to high quality broadcasts of music may also be interested to know that digital broadcasters transmit a lower quality signal.

Manufacturers are pushing for enforced switch over, presumably hoping we shall all buy new radios. It is interesting that the broadcasters have now noticed that fewer people are listening to digital radio and they are asking for a delay.

Dr Charles West
Shrewsbury

Local GP Dr Charles West has condemned Department of Health inept management.

Yesterday afternoon, with no notice, a web-based computer service used by all doctors for their annual appraisals was withdrawn on the instructions of Mike O’Brien, Minister of Health.

Dr West said:

“The NHS Appraisal Toolkit is the system used by doctors throughout the NHS to maintain the quality of their practice, and ensure that they keep their skills up to date. This is the busiest time of the year for appraisals and doctors rely on having access to the reports that they write and store on this system. To have them suddenly removed without notice and without consultation shows how out of touch government ministers are with the workings of the NHS.

“This particular computer service is nine years old, and had not been fully tested for security risks for some years. As part of routine security testing a possible security weakness had been identified. There had been no breach of security, and patient data are not recorded on this particular system. Technical staff running the system say that knowing the potential problem would have allowed them to monitor it for any incorrect usage. Nevertheless the Health Minister decided that the service should be shut down without notice and with no explanation. As a result doctors all round the country will have to cancel or rearrange their schedule of annual appraisals.”

Recent Questions by Liberal Democrats have highlighted the burden that the NHS is facing as a result of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI).

Local Campaigner Dr Charles West said: “In a futile attempt to manipulate government borrowing targets Gordon Brown has left the NHS facing crippling burdens of debt.

“PFI schemes make money for developers and management consultants. Typically these schemes cost the NHS between four and eight times as much as they would if the NHS built the new hospitals itself. As a result hospitals all round the country are being built with too few beds for the local needs and with horrendous debts that will last for sixty years.”

Commenting on Number 10’s refusal to answer questions about the £63bn PFI bill facing the NHS, Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, Norman Lamb, said: “Labour’s scandalous mismanagement of the NHS has left many hospitals facing PFI bills they simply cannot afford.
“Gordon Brown’s speech contains even more spending commitments but he has yet to explain how on earth he intends to pay for the damage he’s already done to the future of the NHS.

“Despite the enormous amounts of money we owe for these hospitals, many of them will never end up in public ownership. Hospitals all over the country are mortgaged to the hilt and there are serious concerns that these repayments will lead to cuts in vital services.

“We need a new approach to public services in this country. By setting up an infrastructure bank the Liberal Democrats will ensure that key projects get access to the funding they need to revitalise our economy.

“The Liberal Democrats will change the way the NHS works so that money goes further and patients come first.”

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Dr Charles West, the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Shrewsbury, has warmly welcomed today’s opening of new affordable housing in Sundorne.

Dr West said: “Severnside Housing Association should be congratulated on obtaining funds to delver this development, but the lack of affordable housing in Shrewsbury remains a disgrace. There are up to 8,000 households currently on the Shropshire Council waiting list. These new affordable homes in Sundorne are a good start, but we need to do much more. Shropshire would need 1,585 affordable homes every year to meet the needs of young families and the homeless.

“The Tory-controlled Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council sold its stock of council houses for £65 million, promised an extra five hundred affordable homes and then failed to deliver. Residents have been let down by the old Tory-controlled Borough Council, will a Tory government do any better?

“At the same time, Liberal Democrats in South Shropshire were leading the way in building affordable homes. Not only did they agree planning for more affordable homes than the rest of the county put together they also started the award winning project at Rocks Green in Ludlow: a project that was opposed by the Tories and which later won Sustainable large social housing project of the year.”

Liberal Democrat housing spokesman, Sarah Tether, has set out plans for a £1.4bn empty homes fund to bring a quarter of a million empty homes back into use and create much-needed jobs in the construction industry.”

Dr Charles West said: “It is appalling that housing costs are making the elderly more isolated and keeping families apart.

“Allowing thousands of houses across the country to sit empty is nothing short of a scandal.  The cost of bringing these homes back into use is just a fraction of the cost of building, yet the Government is sitting idly by while they fall into disrepair.”

“These plans are a clear example of Liberal Democrat practical policies: creating jobs and providing more family homes.”

http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/story.aspx?storycode=6507066

Local GP, Dr Charles West commenting on today’s verdict on the death of David Gray said,

“The NHS needs to learn some lessons from this, and learn them fast. Quality care cannot be done on the cheap, and the government’s obsession with chasing competition from private firms is putting cost before patient care.

“The out of hours care service that killed David Gray, and was also involved in the death of nine month old Taylor Smith had some key features that should have rung the alarm bells.

• It is private company brought in by the Local Primary Care Trust (PCT) to provide out of hours care.
• It had been criticised by local GPs over mistakes in prescribing diamorphine in the weeks prior to the death of David Gray.
• It was know to be facing financial pressure.
• It employed fewer doctors than most out of hours services, sometimes as few as 2 doctors to cover 600,000 patients.
• It recruited doctors from outside the area. Dr Urbani who gave the overdose of painkiller to David Gray flew in from Germany, was not familiar with British General Practice and had poor command of the English language.

“In addition both the coroner in this case and the NHS Care Quality Commission criticised the supervision of this company by the PCT.

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The Liberal Democrats have announced a major funding commitment to boost education in Shropshire.

Nick Clegg has this week set out the Liberal Democrat manifesto commitment for a Pupil Premium that would invest around £9.5m of extra cash in Shropshire schools, raising the funding for disadvantaged pupils to private school levels.

The money will be invested through the Pupil Premium pledge, part of a £2.5bn manifesto spending commitment.

Dr Charles West, PPC for Shrewsbury and Atcham, said:

“It’s nothing short of a scandal that children in Shropshire continue to lose out under Labour.

"We have already seen Shropshire’s Tory Council threatening school closures. With the budgets proposed by a possible future conservative government we would see even more cuts in education.

“Under our plans, Shropshire schools would get a further £9.5m which they could use to cut class sizes and provide more individual support.”

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg said:

“With this unfairness in funding it’s no surprise there is such a gap in achievement between children from the poorest backgrounds and those families who are better off.

“Only when we get education funding back on track will be able to give all our children the fair start they deserve.”

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