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Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt

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Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt

A Crisis Within a Crisis

April 22, 2020 by Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt

I’ve written before about the crisis within social care. In many parts of the UK, this is being compounded by the COVID-19 crisis, with some care homes reporting a devastating proportion of deaths. Having been approached by care workers and relatives, I thought I’d take a closer look at how South Thanet’s care homes are doing.

Today, I spoke to staff in 20 of our residential homes. The picture is remarkably positive, with only one having a couple of suspected cases (being treated in hospital), one ‘quite possibly’ having had cases and one ‘not disclosing that information to unauthorised personnel’.

While some of the responses I received were brusque, many care workers and managers were pleased I’d called and happy to chat.

In general, food supplies have been getting through, with only one concern mentioned about the increasing inability to bulk buy bread and meat from the cash and carry. Other local options are being explored.

The majority of homes reported ample stocks of personal protective equipment (PPE) sourced from a variety of suppliers. Others were running low on aprons, face masks and gloves. I was pleased to recommend incredible local sewing initiatives that might be able to help with fabric masks and aprons. IF ANYONE HAS ANY SURGICAL GLOVES, FACE MASKS OR PLASTIC APRONS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW SO I CAN MAKE SURE THEY REACH THE RIGHT PLACE.

The biggest issue facing our care homes is the lack of testing. Some residents exhibiting symptoms have been taken into hospital, then sent back with no indication of whether or not they’ve been tested, and have had to go into isolation as a result.

The current guidance is that, if staff exhibit symptoms for three days, they can apply to be tested at their local testing centre. The problem is that, by the time staff show symptoms, they will already potentially have spread the virus – to residents in their care and to other staff members. Plus this scheme excludes staff who may have had symptoms in the past. Added to which, staff may have difficulties transporting themselves to a testing centre.

The best thing the Department for Health and Social Care, Care England, the National Care Forum and local authorities could do would be to supply testing kits directly to care homes. This would enable staff and residents to be tested at an early stage to limit the spread of the disease among vulnerable populations.

Filed Under: News

An Open Letter to Craig Mackinlay MP

October 21, 2019 by Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt

AN OPEN LETTER TO CRAIG MACKINLAY MP

Dear Craig,

Labour created the NHS in the teeth of opposition from the Conservatives, who voted against the creation of a universal health service more than 20 times.

Your party has trashed the NHS; since 2010, when the Lib Dems and Tories came to power, the amount of NHS money being funnelled into private hands has more than doubled to over £9bn. A third of NHS contracts now go to private companies, and their failures have wasted millions of pounds of public money. That’s millions of pounds that could have been spent on caring for patients, or paying nurses properly.

But now I’m asking you to undo that damage. On behalf of every patient and NHS worker in South Thanet, on behalf of everyone whose family has ever been cared for here, I am asking you to support Labour’s amendment to the Queen’s Speech, so that the NHS will be brought back into the hands of the public – not corporations like IMH and Virgin Care, who sued the NHS.

We know what Boris Johnson thinks about the NHS – he has written about how having free healthcare is morally dangerous. He is desperate to do a free trade deal with Donald Trump – who said our NHS would be “on the table” in any such deal.

I hope you’ll do the right thing. Vote against your Party and its disgraceful record of selling off our NHS. Vote for what we both know everyone here in Thanet, Sandwich and the villages wants: that the health service is kept safe in the hands of the people.

Yours sincerely

Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt
Policy Officer, South Thanet Labour Party

Filed Under: News

Solidarity with Kurds in Syria

October 20, 2019 by Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt

The vulnerability of the Kurds in Northern Syria is turning into a humanitarian disaster. People are being attacked and killed on a daily basis.

On Sunday 20 October, I was proud to march with members of South Thanet Labour Party, Unite Community and the Kurdish community in Canterbury.

I spoke about the vital importance of Rojava as an exemplar of self government and feminism. We must do all we can to raise our voices in protest.

You are very welcome at the fundraiser, organised by Councillor Aram Rawf, in aid of Kurdish Red Crescent at the Red Hall in Broadstairs on Saturday 2 November 7:30–10pm. There will be Kurdish food and an open mic. Please bring a bottle.

Filed Under: News

Is this the end of our A&E?

October 1, 2019 by Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt

At a fringe meeting at the Conservative Party conference on 30 September 2019, Boris Johnson announced that a new hospital will be built in Canterbury. This would mean the end of the Accident and Emergency unit and consultant-led maternity at QEQM hospital in Thanet.

There are currently three large district general hospitals in East Kent (one in Canterbury, the QEQM in Margate and William Harvey Hospital in Ashford). Health bosses plan to centralise acute care in East Kent as part of a major reconfiguration. So far, there are two options going to consultation.

Option one would see expanded, modernised A&Es at William Harvey in Ashford and QEQM as well as investment at Kent and Canterbury Hospital for improved diagnostics, day treatments and surgery.

Option two entails a new building in Canterbury where ALL of East Kent’s acute care will be delivered, meaning that large populations in Thanet and Ashford lose their A&E and consultant led maternity care (see attachment). Thanet is the second most densely population in Kent, and the second most deprived in all of the southeast. 

These two options are mutually exclusive. By supporting option two, the Prime Minister has effectively predetermined the outcome of what was meant to be a public consultation and condemned QEQM and William Harvey to drastically reduced services.

I was pleased to have my concerns quoted in this article:

“This announcement looks like it will spell disaster for Margate’s QEQM hospital and for Thanet.

“We must fight to keep A&E at QEQM, and to ensure that maternity consultants aren’t robbed from QEQM to be moved elsewhere.

“Thanet is an area of deprivation and needs these time-critical services, or lives will be put at risk.”

Filed Under: News

Statement by Save Our NHS in Kent to Thanet District Council

September 5, 2019 by Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt

On 5 September 2019, I was honoured to read out a statement on behalf of Save Our NHS in Kent (SONiK) to a full meeting of Thanet District Council. This draws attention to the imminent dangers facing our stroke unit and calls upon councillors to help in averting them. You can read the full statement below and on the SONiK website.

Everyone in this room should be aware that local health commissioners have decided to close the stroke unit at QEQM hospital. 

SONiK believes this decision has been taken in an attempt to save money rather than to address local need. 

People in Thanet are more likely to suffer a stroke, and be hospitalised as a result, than people in more affluent parts of Kent. SONiK believes it’s irresponsible to take health services away from those who need them most. 

We also fear that, if the stroke unit is allowed to close, this will be followed by other services – like the A&E and consultant-led maternity – and that QEQM will be seriously downgraded.

Working with the legal team that successfully challenged the downgrading of Lewisham Hospital, SONiK has prepared a case that will be heard in the High Court (likely in early December). We’re asking for QEQM to be considered as one of four sites for a hyper-acute stroke unit.

We had planned to ask you today to donate £5,000 to the £15,000 community contribution we were asked to raise by the Legal Aid Board. However, our fundraising efforts have been so successful that we don’t need to ask you for a contribution at this point. But we hope to be able to come back to you if the case goes to appeal.

For now, we want to alert you to three very serious points and to ask for help.

Firstly: The hospital trust is refusing to put in place measures to prevent early closure of the QEQM stroke unit, as happened recently in Tunbridge Wells. If our stroke unit closes before the promised new facility is ready at Ashford (2021 at the earliest), we’ll suffer the double whammy of having to travel further for the same service. 

We call upon TDC councillors to support us in asking the hospital trust to introduce incentives to prevent stroke staff from leaving before the new unit opens. 

Secondly: In order to judge the impact of time-critical conditions being treated outside Thanet, we need accurate end-to-end data that show what happens when 999-call patients have to travel further to access acute care.

We call upon TDC councillors to join us in asking the hospital trust to start recording these data as part of the Kent Stroke Review and the East Kent NHS reconfiguration.

Thirdly: In SONiK’s view, the stroke scrutiny process carried out by Kent County Council’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee was deeply flawed. An off-the-record meeting took place on 7 May between HOSC members and NHS champions of the stroke plans. Two councillors reversed their decisions as a result of this meeting, but the public will never have access to what was claimed or promised. This is neither accountable nor transparent. 

We call upon TDC councillors to make an official complaint to KCC and to ask them to commit to the eradication of private meetings from future scrutiny processes.

Filed Under: News

Defending Democracy

August 31, 2019 by Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt

On 30 August 2019, an impromptu demonstration was arranged outside the office of South Thanet MP, Craig Mackinlay, to protest against the Government’s decision to shut down Parliament for five weeks. Despite the short notice, many people of many political persuasions came to register their disapproval that the Prime Minister is suspending democracy to force through a no-deal Brexit.

I was pleased that my words were quoted extensively in articles published here and here:
“We’re here today because we believe in democracy. I don’t want the people of Thanet to think that we’re trying to block Brexit. Thanet voted resoundingly to leave the European Union, and the Labour Party have always respected the result of the referendum. We want to help restore sovereignty to parliament; suspending parliament is the exact opposite of that. Boris Johnson, who claims to want to restore democracy to parliament, is actually taking the power away from the people.”


Filed Under: News

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