WITH the snowstorm on Tuesday morning and the consequent gridlock on some routes in Kidderminster I was later than usual getting to London when Parliament resumed after the Christmas break.

During the recess I was privileged to watch the spectacular New Year firework display at the London Eye from the House of Commons terrace which, although crowded, was not packed like the official viewing areas that were reported to have accommodated about 200,000 people.

It was an experience not to be missed even though it involved quite a walk afterwards to by-pass closed pedestrian routes.

Before Christmas I attended a meeting of local MPs with leaders of the county’s health trusts to hear first hand about their efforts to reduce health spending during the next three years without detriment to existing health services.

Whatever any of the main political parties claim in election mode, the Chief Executive of the NHS has said already that in the next five years the NHS will have to make savings of between £15 and £20 billions. Local plans have to take account of a proportion of this and, thank goodness, our NHS leaders are setting their plans out openly without trying to disguise them as anything other than necessary economies.

Work by the department of Health and the Health Select Committee and by the King’s Fund and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts has shown that different ways of working across the NHS in closer partnership with citizens and patients can enhance safety and quality of care while actually saving money.

Of course this will involve all of us tackling smoking, excess alcohol consumption and obesity which cost the NHS vast sums that could be spent otherwise to greater advantage for us all.

Recently I visited Remploy’s local offices and was delighted to hear of their successes working with the unemployed and helping them back to work.

I was impressed with their close co-operation with the Job Centre Plus leading to the presence in their offices of a Job Centre representative to avoid clients having to visit separate places. They echoed my concerns about the medical assessments that are carried out by ATOS without any reference to previous medical details of clients.

I have already raised my concerns about these medical assessments at the highest level and will continue to do this.

Readers will have read in last week’s Shuttle of my speech in the Christmas Adjournment Debate expressing my anger at the proposal to remove Baxter College from the highly successful ContinU Trust and put it into a National Challenge Trust with the Chantry School in Martley because of one poor set of exam results which have ready explanations and have already improved by the efforts of the headteacher, staff, present governors and students.

I intend to follow this up at county and government levels.

A Happy New Year to all readers with my hopes that this cold spell will be soon over as it is hardest for the most vulnerable people in our communities.

Those with long-term illnesses or disabilities still do not qualify for winter heating allowances that give the elderly some help.