dazza333

Comprehensive but who on earth can decipher it in its entirety and use it simply and effectively. How much did it cost to draw this plan up and where are the staff coming from to implement it?

We do actually have a very complex strategic healthcare plan already ongoing within Herefordshire (believe it or not). https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/8345bdff-0075-4d63-9f45-a7755c0a3032 That url should be correct, however, this is my new I pad I'm playing with so apologies if it's not. I will also post the reference. It makes for very complicated reading.

Jimbo, bless ya buddy 😉

Flamboyant, no problem. Why do you think the uptake of this service was so poor? Poor marketing strategy?

Chris Chappell, the research I've done tells me that the squaddies 'rented out house' should be outside of a 40 mile radius of the barracks housing they live in. Is this correct? If not, where have you got your information from please?

Hi Flamboyant, yes I am aware of them both, 'Healthy Lifestyle' was not just bespoke for Herefordshire it was and is a UK wide initiative. It wad introduced in an attempt to tackle the growing concern of lifestyle choices affecting health, all costing the NHS billions of pounds. Alcohol, smoking, poor dietary choice, obesity, sedentary lifestyle etc. The product of these poor choices have been evident to me as a nurse, more so in the last decade, as such I'm afraid I have to disagree with you that both of these initiatives are very beneficial. It has never ceased to amaze me how little many of us understand about how our lifestyle choices directly affect our health and of those around us. It had been noted of growing concern that teenagers are now presenting with coronary heart disease due to poor lifestyle choices. That is quite sad and reflects a lack of knowledge of the cause and effect of poor lifestyle choices.

Hiya Greenknight, yes agreed. I wrote to Wiggin a while back following his HT column where he stated that we shouldn't use the hospital as a political football, I asked why not when the hospital is in such dire straights? His reply from the House of Commons was a generic Tory leaflet of no substance. Jesse Norman further disappoints me with his campaign idea for the hospital based on his arguing for lower parking charges since 2010 (failed) and helping to fix a ventilation pipe!!!! You couldn't make it up, especially when the hospital is shockingly underperforming, in special measures, cant keep its staff, has been put in special measures by the Care Quality Commision and is on a death tracker due to the excessive dear rates!!! Its a basic lack of grass roots knowledge of the Wye Valley Trust.

Hi Chris, just a subnote to your above relevant and appropriate post on housing. I completely agree with you on this point and if elected I will offer you my full support. Truly affordable housing, particularly in my ward Credenhill, is very limited. A big problem very few mention for fear of being dismissed as unsupportive, is that the personnel at the SAS base allegedly buy up Credenhill housing stock, rent it out at elevated rates but live cheaply in barracks, leaving housing that is unaffordable with many residents either on benefits or minimum wage. Forgive me if I'm mistaken but I think the personnel are breaking the rules and should not own and rent out property within a 40 mile radius of the barracks they reside cheaply in?

bobby47, please forgive my unintended blunt questioning. I totally understand where you're coming from with regards to EU/UK border problems putting strain on healthcare infrastructure. My line of questioning was really just me probing you for knowledge. I've read some of your previous posts on Hereford Voice and I appreciate your knowledge base. Chris, yes we should all work together. Ironically many Independents sing the same tune as the IOC, however, you as a body don't appear to know where you stand? You, as a body confuse me, you are Independent but work as a party???? If I stood as an Independent it would be "Independent", but that is not what you are. With regards to healthcare within Herefordshire who is your spokesperson? How is your spokesperson qualified to discuss healthcare? What are the main points of the Independents manifesto concerning healthcare? Again, purely for my own understanding and to bolster my knowledge base.

Hi bobby47, no offence taken. Would you mind expanding on your point of how European Policy impacts upon UK healthcare please?

Furthermore Chris, I commend you for including healthcare as part of your own agenda. Well done.

Well Chris, I'm standing against your 'leader' in Credenhill and for the IOC. As a Registered Emergency Nurse and Visiting Nurse Lecturer at the City of Birmingham University Healthcare IS my agenda and I really do hear what you are saying. Healthcare at grass roots level is lacking from probably all of our party's manifestos. Within Herefordshire we are facing extreme healthcare issues, 1 in 3 (I believe) are of pensionable age, which brings with it complex and expensive care problems, furthermore, austerity brings poverty which also brings its own healthcare problems (Black Report, Inequalities in Health, 1982 an older publication but very relevant in 2015) Thus your point of domestic violence is not necessarily linked just to mental health but to poverty. Poverty is widely documented to be inclusive of its own set of healthcare linked problems and habits, e.g drinking to excess and smoking. So, yes it is missing from the manifestos but with good reason. There are very few healthcare related political thinking people left to write it in. Could your leader Bob Matthews have discussed this at length and so specifically with you?

dippyhippy, Hi.I agree that there really are major problems with our Mental Health Services, not just with children and adolescents but also with adults, but it not just down to funding. Herefordshire is a poor relation of the UK when it comes to healthcare staff retention. Its very poor UK wide but hits us hardest as we are elusive and expensive when you consider band 5 staff nurse rate of pay £11 approx plus average rents £600 plus. Furthermore, the government cut nursing student places by 25% in 2013 AND moved study away from diploma level to all BSc, inclusive of Mental Health Studies. The story is much the same with Social Work in Herefordshire. Compound this with the closure of MH facilities both day care and long term residency AND funding linked to austerity measures AND the government cutting 4000 senior nursing posts inclusive of Mental Health Nursing Services.....and therein lies the problem. The cheaper option for mental health services is to medicate and counsel. Hereford County Hospital allows many patients at risk due to mental health problems slip through the net because the Emergency dept is underfunded, understaffed, too small and the nursing staff they opt for there are the cheaper newly qualified bottom band 5s many of whom are ill equipt to deal with mental health patients as we have read about time and time again in HT. I really could pick layer after layer from this subject and the answer is always the same; fund and train.

Why are none of you even slightly touching the subject of healthcare? Is it that you are happy to be treated by a hospital that has proven to be substandard? (CQC report on Wye Valley Trust, Oct 14)This hospital is in special measures and a 'Death Tracker' has been implemented by the CQC because it has the highest death rate in the UK..........discuss...