The Doctors Strike and what you should know

The BMA must be the first union in history to call for strike action against a deal they themselves negotiated and said was a good one!

In fact the current chair of the JDC, Ellen McCourt, who called these strikes, co-led negotiations for the BMA when agreement was reached in May – and recommended the revised contract to members as ‘beneficial to our patients and to our junior doctors’.

The Government has been speaking to the BMA for three years and have made 107 different concessions. The Government is prepared to talk with the BMA about how we can call off the strike.

As doctors’ representatives, the BMA should be putting patients first, not playing politics in a way that will be immensely damaging for vulnerable patients.


Whilst there are many pressures on the frontline, funding is at record levels, with the highest number of doctors employed in the history of the NHS. Co-operation not confrontation is the way forward to make sure patients get the best treatment and the NHS is there for people whenever they need it.


The new contract is:

* Better for patients – who will have access to a great and improving service 7 days a week. These changes are the most significant change to the contract in seventeen years. The changes ensure the NHS is shaped around the needs of patients who can’t choose what day of the week they fall unwell.


* Better for junior doctors – guaranteeing better training, safety and working conditions. Junior doctors working legal hours will receive a basic pay rise of around 10 to 11 %, subject to modelling. New limits on hours worked, consecutive nights and long days will also be introduced. A new family support plan will help balance home and work and offer catch-up programmes.


* Better for the NHS – linking pay progression to attainment, tackles locum costs and scraps unsafe incentives for long hours. There will be a fundamental shift in the way doctors are paid for weekend work so it is a third less expensive for hospitals to roster doctors over the weekend. By introducing Saturday and Sundays plain time rates and a sliding scale replacing unsocial hour payments high standards of care will be enabled at an affordable rate.

We are absolutely certain this is the right way forward but I fear the BMA are on a one way street with an agenda to bring down the govt written on the side of their Bandwagon.

Bank holiday weekend health advice

With the bank holiday weekend approaching, GPs in east and west Suffolk are reminding people that the right help is available to deal with injury and illness.

Dr Christopher Browning, a GP in Long Melford and chairman of NHS West Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group said: “By choosing the right health care option you will get treated more quickly and lessen the pressure on health staff over this busy weekend.

“Being prepared is the best option and could save a stressful dash to a pharmacy or an unnecessary trip to your hospital's emergency department (A&E).  One of the best ways to be prepared is to have a well-stocked medicine cabinet. It’s not expensive to stock up on basic items such as sticking plasters, paracetamol, anti-diarrhoea medicine and indigestion remedy. Ask your pharmacist for advice on what you medicines you should keep at home."

Dr Mark Shenton, a GP in Stowmarket and chairman of NHS Ipswich and East Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group said: “There are a number of pharmacies open over the holiday weekend where you can access help and advice as well as  over-the-counter medication for many minor injuries and illnesses.

"If you have forgotten to order your regular medicine from your GP and run out over the holiday period  your pharmacist may be able to help by providing an emergency supply. Please remember to take your repeat slip or empty pack(s) with you to show the pharmacist what you usually take.

"The Suffolk GP+ service is based in Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds and will be open over the weekend and on the bank holiday Monday. You can book an appointment with a GP or nurse practitioner in advance and you need to do this through your own GP practice.

“If you need help fast and it’s not life-threatening then you should call NHS 111.  The 111 number is available 24/7 and a trained advisor will help you. Perhaps you have a question about medication or a medical concern about yourself or someone else; maybe you want to find your nearest pharmacy that’s open on bank holiday Monday or perhaps you have a health question that can’t wait until your GP surgery is open or you think you need to access the out-of-hours service."

Click on link below to read list of pharmacies open on Monday 29 August HERE

Labour are in Chaos - Part 2 - Broken Promises

Promises now in chaos

48 hour GP care – Labour’s NHS pledges unravel

·         Labour promise.

o   ‘An appointment within 48 hours for all who want one – and an appointment on the same day for all who need one’ (Labour Press, 12 May 2014, link). They claimed this would cost £100 million a year: ‘a Labour government will help all surgeries achieve these standards by investing an extra £100 million a year in family doctor practices’ (ibid.)

·         Promise in chaos.

o   This promise actually costs £1.361 billion in 2015/16 – over ten times more than Labour claim (HM Treasury, Opposition costing – guarantee on GP appointments, 5 January 2015, link).

o   Ed Balls now claims this promise would be paid for out of a £2.5 billion ‘time to care fund’: ‘As you know, we've established a Time to Care fund, £2.5bn a year which will be financed by the mansion tax on homes over £2m’ (BBC Radio 4, World at One, 5 January 2015).

o   However, the proposed tax rises for this will raise no money in 2015/16. In October 2014 Ed Balls’ office confirmed to the Guardian that any money from new taxes would not be available until halfway through the next parliament (Guardian, 5 October 2014, link).

o   And Labour’s press release explaining the ‘Time to Care Fund’ makes no mention of guaranteeing a GP appointment. Neither Ed Miliband nor Andy Burnham mentioned the GP access guarantee in their 2014 conference speeches.

London Challenge – Balls rushes out new Labour education cuts

·         Labour promise. ‘As Secretary of State for Education, I will roll out the London Challenge scheme across the country: tackling poor results and raising standards in our coastal towns, counties, and regional cities’ (Tristram Hunt, Speech to Labour Party conference 2014, 21 September 2014).

·         Promise in chaos. ‘That will happen entirely within the education budget that Tristram Hunt inherits. And he will seek to find savings elsewhere, and no new money’ (Ed Balls, WATO, 5 January 2015).

Promises dumped by Labour

Cancelling Arts Council spending reduction in 2015/16 – Balls dumps Harman’s opposition to cuts

·         Labour promise. ‘The successes we now celebrate in the arts are the result of many years of public support, through funding and public policy. But this Government is threatening the future of our arts and creative industries through slashing the Arts Council, crushing the ability of local government to support culture locally and side-lining creative education’ (Harriet Harman, Labour Party press release, 14 June 2013).

·         Promise dumped.

o   ‘p.44 of Tory dossier says Labour will cancel cuts to the arts budget. We won’t’ (Labour Press Team Twitter Account, 5 January 2015).

o   ‘I am afraid there will be no new money in 2015/16 for the Arts Council and for the culture budget over the plans we inherit’ (Ed Balls, WATO, 5 January 2015).

I Laughed so Much at Ipswich Labour's Rose - Now Here's the Truth

As a rule, I don't often feel compelled to reply to any of the usual Labour B.S. that I read in their Rose but I'm afraid today, all decorum is going to go out of the window to burn off in the midday sunshine.

I laughed so much at all the latest triumphs Ipswich Labour have tried to hoodwink you into believing was all down to them, that I wouldn't have been surprised if they'd also announced that the sunshine in the last week was down to them campaigning to the Great Sun God himself!

Where do I begin?

The item you might have expected me to reply to - yes, that good old number bus route 16 - is not the one that finally made me keel over. As I've said before, it was down to the petition that I instigated and the signatures I received, and since passed onto IBC, that got things moving. Thanks to the resounding return from residents, Ipswich Labour moved very quickly and Ipswich Buses changed it's mind in a matter of days.
They also want you to believe that they are awaiting a reply from SCC on bus no 22 but fail to mention that SCC asked them for help on another route and were refused.

No - It wasn't even the fact that at the SW committee where we ALL agreed (yes, they forget that there is one Tory councillor - little ol' me) to fund various projects such as goal posts at Lavenham Road, A CCTV camera at Lavender Hill etc that prompted me to write this blog post.
Not even the fact that Councillor Barry Studd took all the credit for raising the issue of the need for renovation of a bus shelter in Stoke Park Drive - the real person was a resident in Whitland close who then reprimanded councillor Studd and Councillor Ellesmere for not stating that it was he who brought this to a councillors attention. It will be corrected at the next meeting, because of that confrontation, and if the resident wants to make himself known then he can reply in the comments.

This proves that they are not worried about bringing people closer to the decisions making. If that had been me, I would've told everyone in the room 'See you can make a difference - a resident has asked for this and got what he asked for'. No, not Labour councillors, the chief makers of all that is good and useful.

It wasn't even the fact that, with all their failings in the NHS - and boy, are they big ones, they have the audacity to talk about asking David Cameron to listen to them. There are no cuts to the NHS, Labour had an open door policy that has seen our NHS groan under the strain, as well as our schools and other public services and they completely ignore Andy Burnham's role in so many deaths. It is the Coalition that has carried out reviews but councillor Ellesmere would have you believe that the demise of the NHS is down to the Coalition. Not so laughable. That's when the smile started to be wiped from my face.

But it wasn't even that which prompted me to put digit to keyboard. It was the final story. 'New Building At Last for Suffolk New Academy (Chantry High)'.

They have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with this new build. It has taken a while but that decision was accomplished by Ben Gummer MP - He fought hard and long to get the government to agree to a new build. He brought Gove to our town to show him why it was a priority. He talked and talked and talked about it at Westminster until we got the go ahead many months ago. We had done leaflets to that effect at the time. HOW DARE THEY TAKE CREDIT FOR THIS ONE!!! I was so shocked but then I laughed - it dawned on me then they will take the credit for absolutely anything. Perhaps, as well as the sun, they might want to pat themselves on the back for the reduction in crime that has been so massive in our town, and all that success with less money and a PCC (Tim Passmore), even though they were against elected PCCs in the first place. Look out for the crime stats in the near future and know this - They had nothing to do with that either.

So ladies and gentlemen - they have stepped up their sleight of hand, misdirection and downright fibs (meaning the witholding of relevant information that would change the meaning of what is being read) on their leaflets for several reasons but the number 1 is the fact that councillor Ellesmere is using his position as leader of the council and the exaggeration of anything good happening in this town being down to him and his colleagues, so that he can win in the General Election. Watch this space and mark my words. I will be highlighting more of the same if they shove more of this rubbish through my door.

When that happens I might resurrect that good old song I used to sing in the playground.

Pants on Fire Councillor Ellesmere - Pants on Fire...

Ben Gummer - Health of Ipswich

Ben has written an important article on NHS in his latest newsletter and for the local paper. It merits the main message being repeated here.

If the critics of the new health reforms are blaming how it has been communicated then this goes some way to explain why the reforms are so important and necessary.

 He invites you to discuss this with him at his surgery session, (details printed at the end)

From Bens Evening Star column, published on 24th Febuary.  

"We all know what the problems are with the NHS: too much money goes on bureaucracy, doctors are not given enough control, patients are often left out of decision-making, and too little money is spent on prevention - especially in elderly care and chronic diseases - and too much on clearing up problems in hospital that should have been dealt with earlier elsewhere.
Worst of all, the difference in life expectancy between those who have money and those who do not is disgracefully wide. The NHS was invented to close this gap - so everyone could expect the same healthcare, regardless of their ability to pay.  

Let me first bust a myth that has persisted too long. Whilst the vast majority of people working in the NHS are public spirited and hard working; whilst the treatments we receive a often very good; whilst the range of treatments we receive is remarkable: the NHS is not the best health service in the world.

If Ipswich were transferred to Holland, or Germany, or France, or even Valencia in Spain - the people of this town would receive better healthcare than in Britain. In cancer survival rates, the difference is most marked: by some measures only a few former eastern bloc countries do worse. Indeed, in one Indian cardiac hospital in Bangalore, more people are treated to better effect at significantly less cost (even accounting for wage differentials) than in any cardiac hospital in the UK.   Why is this the case? Because in Holland, Germany and France, the health system is managed more by clinicians - doctors and consultants - and less by bureaucrats. Their health systems are more efficient, meaning that money goes where it is needed. And the management of care for the elderly and those suffering from chronic conditions is better integrated.   I don't think that this is right. Why should you get worse healthcare than someone similar over the North Sea, who contributes roughly the same to the cost of their cover?

Now, the health bill before the House of Commons goes some way towards bringing some of that best practice to our health service. People write to me and ask whether I am in favour of it. The answer is yes: because it is already making a difference in Ipswich reducing elderly admissions to hospital, reducing waste in the drugs budget, and planning care for people with long-term conditions. I would not support it if it was not good for Ipswich or for my family.  

My only criticism is that it does not take us close enough to the systems in the continent, which will continue to better us unless we keep up reform. Only then will we have an NHS that is truly the envy of the world'.

The Health of Ipswich Surgery
Come to my open surgery on 3rd March, between 10 and 12, at Colchester Road Baptist Church, where there will also be local councillors and police from the north east Safer Neighbourhood Team. You may want to argue with me about this article!

Contact Information phone: 0845 634 9197 email: ben@bengummer.com