Author Archives:

Sir Bruce Keogh wants your views on NHS urgent care


The NHS England Medical Director, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, has announced a review into the way the NHS responds to and receives emergency patients, called the Urgent and Emergency Care Review. As reported on the BBC this morning the new report shows that: The fragmentation…of urgent care services across England causes confusion amongst patients and healthcare professionals in terms of services offered. This can lead to patients presenting at services that may not best suit their needs. This will sound painfully familiar [...]

Tags: , , , , ,

Public meetings on Bucks hospitals with Sir Bruce Keogh


Next week, on 10 June, as part of NHS Medical Director Sir Bruce Keogh’s nationwide inquiry into mortality rates, a review team led by Regional and Medical Directors of NHS England will arrive to investigate Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. The purpose of the visit is to examine why the Trust has high mortality rates and establish what can be done to improve the standard of care for patients. It is expected to last 2-3 days. Meetings to canvas opinion from [...]

Tags: , , , , ,

Bucks County pledge extra £3m on local road repairs


The Conservative-run County Council has announced a one-off £3 million addition to this year’s £25m budget for road maintenance in Buckinghamshire. Many people have voiced their concern over the state of Wycombe’s roads. This move by the County Council should start to improve matters. As a frequent road user in Wycombe and the wider Buckinghamshire area, both by car and on my motorcycle, I look forward to the prospective improvements. While these additional funds will help to reduce the backlog [...]

Tags: , , , , ,

Introducing the Exporting is GREAT Campaign


UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) has launched a new pilot marketing campaign called Exporting is GREAT that will run throughout May 2013 to help small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) grow internationally. Exporting is GREAT is designed to increase understanding of the benefits of exporting and to drive awareness, and take-up, of the many sources of support and help available. The UKTI knows from research that international trade offers a significant boost to a company’s success. Yet less than 25% [...]

Tags: , , , , , ,

Bucks County Council is working hard to encourage voter turnout


Chris Williams, Chief Executive, Buckinghamshire County Council has said: Anyone presented with the opportunity to influence the running of an organisation with a customer base of more than half a million, and an £849 million budget, would kick themselves if they missed it. So I want to make sure every one of the 389,738 people in the county eligible to vote grasps their opportunity on Thursday 2 May to influence the way Buckinghamshire County Council is run. County Council elections happen once every four [...]

Tags: , , , ,

Motorcyclists: ‘Stay in Control’ this Summer


The Government’s ‘Stay In Control’ campaign — developed with partners from the motorcycle industry -– encourages motorcyclists to refine their riding by taking advanced training with qualified instructors and to consider being especially vigilant when road traffic increases as the summer weather arrives. The Minister, Stephen Hammond, has said: Motorcyclists make up just 1% of the traffic on our roads but last year accounted for 19% of deaths. So reducing the number of bikers killed on our roads is a key [...]

Tags: , , , , ,

Latest Unemployment figures for Wycombe


In March 2013, there were 2,105 unemployed claimants in Wycombe – 52 lower than in March 2012. The figure for March 2013 represents a rate of 3.7% of the economically active population aged 16 to 64, which ranks Wycombe favourably as the 409th of the 650 UK constituencies ordered by unemployment.

Tags: , , ,

NHS staff pay – updated


A further Parliamentary question on pay in the NHS locally. Compared to my previous question, 28 people earning over £50k are missing – I should have included “other” in the question. I’ll return to this subject later: Steve Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) clinical, (b) managerial and (c) clerical NHS staff in Buckinghamshire were paid more than (i) £50,000, (ii) £65,738 and (iii) £100,000 in the last year for which figures are available. [...]

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Budget 2013: The Headlines


The following was provided by the Conservative Party in summary of the Budget 2013. In a tough economic situation, the British people know there are no easy answers or short cuts. But we are succeeding, slowly but surely, in fixing those problems. We’ve now cut Labour’s record deficit by not just by a quarter – but by a third. We’ve helped create 1.25 million new private sector jobs. Interest rates remain at record lows. Income tax The amount people can [...]

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Westminster to Wycombe: A view from Wycombe Abbey


NB This post has been kindly written by Tiffany Lau, Yr 12, Wycombe Abbey School – outlining her thoughts and experiences of the Westminister to Wycombe debate  Many misconceptions were cleared up at today’s Westminster to Wycombe Parliamentary debating event at Highcrest Academy, High Wycombe. Here are just a few. 1.     Politics is boring. Debating in a British Parliament format more or less clears up this misconception. There were quality debates on overseas aid, public spending and the deficit, the [...]

Tags: , , , , ,