Letter from Parliament - Jim Dobbin MP

Jim Dobbin MP

Last Wednesday, during PMQs, I was able to tell the House of Commons that the parents of Gunner Lee Rigby were most appreciative of the strong but sensitive support the family had received from the people of Langley and indeed the whole of Middleton, following their very sad loss.

The Prime Minister reported with generous words to a packed but attentive Chamber. The silence said it all. A powerful message of respect for Gunner Lee Rigby and his loved ones and the people of Heywood and Middleton.

I then chaired a seminar on hygiene, nutrition, sanitation and clean water for developing countries. There were academics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine taking part in the debate and presenting their research on poverty and disease. It is important to say that improving health and preventing early death in developing countries benefits everyone in the UK and the rest of the developed world. Disease travels and there are many examples of this.

The seminar was facilitated by Water-Aid. These are the programmes that the Bill Gates Foundation, The World Health Organisation and U.N.I.C.E.F support.

The logistics of this health problem amongst babies and small children are horrendous. This is the main reason for the existence of the Department of International Development and the Department was present at the seminar.

We now have a crisis in A & E which is getting worse. Patients and hospitals are paying the price for the coalition governments’ mis-management of the NHS. The unfolding crisis in A & E is a clear and visible symptom of a system under pressure, with ambulances queuing up outside A & E and patients waiting on trolleys and waiting times grossly increasing.

About 4,500 nursing jobs have been lost since the general election in 2010. These losses are putting patients at risk.

Recently released figures show that major A & E Units across the Greater Manchester region are struggling and have consistently missed their waiting time targets over the last six months.

The Government has tried to blame everybody else for this chaos, including female doctors who take time off to have children or when doctors must look after sick members of their family. This is a novel form of sexism even for the government.

This chaos is happening because of cuts to social care in the community, the closure of walk-in centres, under-staffing at all levels, problems with the helpline and a confused re-organisation.

This government needs to urgently get a grip of this situation which is deteriorating by the day.

I was pleased to be able to visit St. James’ Church, Heywood as they celebrated their 150th anniversary and then joined Helen and Herman Jungmayr at a fund raiser for the Rochdale M.S. Society. It was a lovely sunny day and I enjoyed both events very much.