Diary of your MP from Karen Lumley, MP for Redditch County – 4 December 2015
THERE have been two incredibly important events occurring this this week, one local and one on the international stage and both of which require comment.
Firstly, this week saw the long-awaited publication by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) into the running of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which includes the Alex in Redditch.
And the results were damning. Inspectors found the Trust needs to make urgent improvements to ensure it is delivering care which is safe, effective and responsive to people’s needs. Furthermore, they recommended that WAHT should be placed in special measures after the inspection rated it ‘inadequate’.
Inspectors had concerns about staffing in some areas, resulting in an over-reliance on temporary staff. And in the emergency department, consultant cover did not meet with Royal College of Emergency Medicine workforce recommendations, while waiting times were not meeting national standards.
I am not surprised to see the Trust being placed into special measures. I will be meeting the CQC’s Chief Inspector of hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, along with the Trust Development Authority and other local MPs to see what the way forward is.
Incidentally, the care itself was rated ‘good’ and I want to thank the staff for all their hard work in very challenging times.
Now a few thousand miles away in Syria. At the time of writing I don’t know how Parliament will have voted on Wednesday, but I have always made my position clear. It is my firm conviction the UK should join air strikes, however I also agree that we should not act alone. There has to be a coherent international strategy on IS, using every resource available – military as well as diplomatic, political and humanitarian.
But at the end of the day IS are bombing, raping and torturing their way into the lives of every day, peace-loving people and this cannot be allowed to happen unchallenged. It is my firm view that sometimes you have to be brave enough to take firm action against such outright evil. I voted for air strikes before and did so again this week.
To keep up to date with what I am doing, visit http://www.tellkaren.com/ or follow https://www.facebook.com/Karen4RedditchCounty/ or https://mobile.twitter.com/tell_karen.
