September 27, 2007
10:51am Wednesday 3rd October 2007
LAST week I attended the AGM of Leukaemia Care, a national charity with its headquarters in Worcester.
I was honoured to be elected a vice-president as this is a charity "committed to providing care and support to everybody whose lives have been affected by blood cancers". Their hard-earned income is over £1 million per annum and thanks to prudent management most of this income is spent on services for patients and their families.
The most important of these services is their free 24 hours a day, 365 days a year telephone help line for people affected by blood cancers.
This vital service supplements the NHS where it is most needed, in communication and the provision of information. Poor communication between staff and patients is the cause of most complaints about hospital care.
We now have a new head of the county's nursing services and I plan to meet her to share my concerns about communication and its affect on quality of care.
I also attended the AGM of the Wyre Forest Talking Newspaper, a local charity, 27 years old, that provides weekly audio tapes of local news for over 200 visually impaired people.
The expressions of thanks from listeners show how highly appreciated this service is.
It was excellent to hear tributes to Royal Mail too. Bags of tapes are picked up at 5am on Saturday mornings and most are delivered to the listeners on the same day free of charge. What a superb service from Royal Mail!
Thus the dedicated volunteers of the Talking Newspaper are able to keep their listeners up-to-date and connected with their community.
Following successive losses of premises and now being lodged temporarily at Baxter College thanks to the generosity of staff and governors, the Talking Newspaper volunteers are desperate to find a permanent home for their recording equipment and activities.
This would only be used for a few hours each week with security for equipment in between the times of use. If any reader has a suggestion my office (01562 753333) could pass on any messages.
Problems associated with Warmfront, the Government initiative to help with home heating have been raised again.
The difficulties are due to the Government's preferred contractors being situated far from their service commitments here in Wyre Forest and from the fact that their estimates for work to be done are in excess of our more local contractors' private estimates sometimes by a factor of two. This may often take the total cost above the amount available from Government sources for the improvements.
After complaining to the Government Minister responsible about this I received a reply saying that the estimates from their preferred contractors are under review to make sure they are competitive.
I hope this will improve the situation in the months to come but if any readers have experiences of excessive Warmfront contractors' estimates please let me know at the House of Commons, SW1A 0AA or e-mail bulfm@parliament.uk