Supporting the village shop – update
This afternoon, Boris stopped in Checkendon, in his Henley constituency, to inaugurate the combined village shop and Post Office which was taken over by Bal Budesha in 2007. Despite the biting wind and the hour of the day, over 70 local people of all ages turned out for the occasion. After cutting the inaugural ribbon and viewing the wide range of local, organic and staple, everyday produce in the shop that, like so many others around the country, also fulfils functions as the surgery transport waiting room, newsagent, information centre and more besides.
Some of the children presented Boris with some excellent ‘Save our Post Office’ posters for his office and Boris selected Isobel Willis’s well-written defence of the shop as the one to read to the assembled crowd. Boris then gave a short speech recognising the vital role of post offices and shops in communities such as this.
Jane Barker of the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council presented Bal with its Best Independent Retailer award before Boris moved on to a meeting with various local officials.
February 07, 2007 Update
Much to the delight of all, the post office and shop has been reprieved. Thank you, Boris, for your support.
Boris Johnson MP: Lets Make CHANT (Community Hospitals) Rally a Success
Supporters of community hospitals from around the country are today attending the first National Community Hospitals Rally in London. Despite welcome recognition of the importance of the services provided by community hospitals in the recent Health White Paper, cuts and closures are continuing.
Over 300,000 people have already signed local petitions supporting their community hospitals and delegations from across England will be in attendance. The rally will be addressed by the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of CHANT, Graham Stuart and Boris Johnson MP, by Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Secretary of State for Health, and by Steve Webb, the Liberal Democrat Health spokesman. Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Health, has also been invited to speak.
Commenting on the Rally, Boris Johnson MP said:
‘I am delighted so many people seem prepared to travel from all around the country to come to this event. Despite recent reassurances in the Health White Paper, many communities are seeing their local hospitals being wound down or closed – this Rally is proof that this is not what people want.
I only hope that when Patricia Hewitt glances out her window in the Commons and catches sight of the assembled throng that she take to heart their message, that these community hospitals are an absolutely vital and valued local resource and must not be closed merely in response to some end of year budgetary crunch. I will in addition keep my fingers firmly crossed the sun continues to shine!’
ENS
Notes to Editors:
CHANT is holding a national rally outside Parliament on March 28th from 1pm to 2pm to highlight the continued threat to more than 80 community hospitals and demand that action is taken by the Government.
CHANT is a cross-party group campaigning for community hospitals. It has Labour, Liberal Democrat, Independent and Conservative MPs and Peers as Patrons. Further information about CHANT, including details of the national rally to be held in London on March 28th, can be found on the CHANT website:
www.chantonline.com
email [Email address: email #AT# chantonline.com - replace #AT# with @ ]
200 students back Boris for rector’s role
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MORE than 200 students have nominated Boris Johnson for the role of rector at Edinburgh University.
The Tory frontbencher has received more nominations than the number of votes most candidates won in the last rectorial election three years ago, and five times the 40 necessary to be a candidate.
Local Community Hospitals
16 November 2005
Boris Johnson MP steps up campaign to save local Community Hospitals
Boris Johnson MP, attending yesterdays Westminster launch of the Community Hospitals Acting Nationally Together (CHANT) group , denounced the Government’s failure to investigate and halt what now appears to be a nationwide programme of community hospital closures. As Vice-Chairman of the group, Boris Johnson MP called on all those present to work together, along cross-party lines, to co-ordinate efforts at a national level to better fight the closure of community hospitals throughout the country.
At a meeting held beforehand and chaired by the Shadow Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley MP, to discuss the problems facing community hospitals, Boris Johnson MP lambasted the current lack of accountability of regional ‘health quangocrats’ to the needs and views of local people:
‘It is utterly infamous that the views of local communities are being ignored. In almost all these cases the move towards care in the community is being driven not by best practice or clinical need but by the desire to balance the books and write down Primary Care and Strategic Health Authority deficits. Community hospitals are at the front line of these cost cutting drives despite the fact they play a vital intermediate care and step-down role. Local people want them, District Hospitals need them, yet nationwide over 80 of these community hospitals are being threatened with closure. Worse, no-one is taking any responsibility for these decisions. Government passes the buck to the Health Authorities who in turn pass it to the Primary Care Trusts who then pass it right back to the Government. At the end of the day though, the Government appointed these unelected quangocrats to their posts and the Government must now explain their actions’.
Save Townlands Hospital, Henley-on-Thames
20 October 2005
Boris Johnson MP: Townlands Must Be Saved
Boris Johnson MP has today called on the Government to ensure the future of Townlands hospital.
Handing over a petition to 10 Downing Street containing some 10,000 signatures calling for Townlands to be saved, Mr Johnson said:
I believe Henley needs a hospital, but this is not just a question of clinical need, it is also a question of democracy. If Labour persists in its massacre of community hospitals then it should have the guts to explain the logic of this frankly bizarre decision to the British public rather than hiding behind the excuses of unaccountable, unelected officials.
In support of the petition, an Early Day Motion (number 798) has been tabled that seeks recognition for:
the valuable worked carried out by community and cottage hospitals in providing intermediate and step-down care.
and which notes that:
many community hospitals in Oxfordshire, such as Townlands hospital in Henley-on-Thames, are threatened with closure; and calls upon the Government to ensure that these proposed closures are forestalled and that community hospitals are placed back at the heart of community care.
EARLY DAY PARLIAMENTARY MOTION to follow:
EDM
Provision of Intermediate Care and Community Hospitals
That this house recognises the valuable work carried out by community and cottage hospitals in providing intermediate and step-down care; notes that the cost of treating a patient in a local community hospital is often significantly lower than the cost of treating one in a district general hospital; further notes that “delayed discharge” as a result of lack of capacity at the intermediate care level continues to plague the NHS leading to a shortage of acute beds; further notes too that many community hospitals in Oxfordshire, such as Townlands hospital in Henley-on-Thames, are threatened with closure; and calls upon the Government to ensure that these proposed closures are forestalled and that community hospitals are placed back at the heart of community care.
Boris and family ~ messing about on the river
Congratulations to David Dawson and his fantastic team in Henley – well done on your latest superb copy of The Henley Standard with a record-breaking 96 pages including a special Regatta supplement!
Also, this amazing picture of Boris and family enjoying a river boat cruise – in this week’s Henley Standard.
