Patient Care at the Alex

Today's report is shocking and my thoughts are with the 38 families who have suffered mistreatment of their loved ones, 35 of whom have been at the Alex Hospital.

 

My concern for the care of patients at the Alex remains. Despite the majority of people going through the Alex getting good care, there is a deep rooted problem regarding the quality of care. Both long standing and revealed by the damning CQC report last year on how older people were being failed.

 

Today's revelation tells me that while investment alone will clearly not solve this issue, cutting £50 million from our local hospitals will only make things worse. The people of Redditch want and deserve good local services and with these findings it's clear the Alex needs greater support not less, something I will continue to campaign for.

There is no excuse for substandard care and if we want to see an end to this we cannot accept cuts of this magnitude to the NHS including 5000 fewer nurses since 2010.

http://www.redditchstandard.co.uk/2012/12/23/news-Payout-over-patient-neglect-at-the-Alex-59000.html


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/heal-our-hospitals/9763018/Victims-of-neglect-at-the-Alexandra-Hospital.html

Long term unemployment is still stubbornly high in Redditch and the Government’s Work Programme is not working

In Redditch, long term unemployment is up 58% on last year.  For 18-24 year olds it's even worse, up 125%.   At the same time as the Government’s Work Programme is found to be failing.

Last month we found out that the Work Programme is getting fewer people into jobs than if the Government did nothing at all.  Only 1.1% of people referred onto the Work Programme have been placed into jobs in Redditch.

 

Rebecca said, “This Government has got to wake up to this crisis.  The cost of living continues to rise, last month prices rose at twice the rate of wages, people are falling further and further behind. 

Right now, three people in Redditch are chasing every vacancy.  The Government must take action now and they should start with Labour’s Real Jobs Guarantee and get our young people back to work. 

The Government does not appear to understand that the best way to reduce borrowing is to get those that can work into work, simply concentrate on cutting benefits without jobs for people to go into is incoherent".

Labour would raise £2 billion from Bankers Bonuses to get young people who are out of work for over a year into work for at least 6 months and to include training to improve their skills and experience.  A National Insurance tax break for small firms hiring new staff would also help stimulate employers to recruit staff, creating new jobs.

Osborne Hitting Low Paid in Redditch Again

Governments around the world have their work cut out trying to manage their finances.  Undoubtedly there would have been difficult decisions to make for any UK government.  However, two years into a Conservative led Coalition and the UK economy is lagging behind France and Germany.
 
We are told by this government that even more cuts are necessary to reduce the deficit.  Yet the truth is welfare payments are increasing and the Government will borrow £212 billion more than they had planned.
 
Yet the government can afford to give every single millionaire an average of £107,000 by cutting the top rate of tax, while a Redditch family earning approximately £20,000 a year will lose £279 annually?  On top of the VAT hike last year that cost the average family £450 a year.
 
Despite having inherited a growing economy in 2010, we have since had the lowest levels of growth since the Second World War.  Now that Osborne has admitted he will not balance the books by 2015 he appears to have listened to Labour by promising investment in infrastructure - however, we are still waiting for them to start.  This country urgently needs a plan for growth.  We need a temporary VAT cut to help hard pressed families and businesses, a bankers bonus tax to create youth jobs and affordable homes and to not spend £3 billion on a wasteful NHS reorganisation.
 
People ask what a Labour government would do differently.  If there was an election tomorrow we would not ask the wealthiest to pay £3 billion less while asking the rest of society to pay more.