Letters

Letter to Weston Hospital about night closure of A and E

22/6/17

May I please ask you to reconsider your decision to close the A and E department at Weston Hospital from 10pm until 8am.

I have recently had occasion to bring someone into A and E during the day and the person received excellent care in every respect. She was also treated with great sympathy and understanding. My concern is that if she had been taken unwell at 9.45 pm instead of earlier in the day we would have faced a difficult situation involving either a drive to Bristol or calling an ambulance – the latter of which would obviously have been costly.

I find it difficult to understand how closing A and E at night is going to provide better patient care. Surely it can be kept open with a limited number of staff who can deal either with patients who are taken in for emergency care by family members or friends, or patients who are brought in by ambulance and who are not assessed as being in such a serious condition that they need to go to Bristol or Taunton.

I find it equally difficult to understand how an overnight closure will help “reset and remodel” the A and E department. If one of the requirements for improvements to be made following the CQC Report is recruiting permanent staff I simply cannot see how this can possibly be helped by the proposal.

I hope you will redouble your efforts to recruit permanent doctors and nurses of the highest quality to Weston’s A and E department and that whilst you are doing this you will find a way to keep it open overnight. I am sure everyone in Weston and the surrounding district wants this to happen and it is my view that you have a duty to provide this service.

Yours sincerely

Alan Kerr

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Letters about the conflict in Syria

John Penrose, MP

House of Commons

London 5 December 2016

Dear John

I have been deeply saddened by the suffering in Syria over the past five years and hearing about the recent onslaught in Aleppo I am more saddened than ever before. The suffering has been, and still is, unbelievably appalling in terms of loss of life, horrific injuries to children and adults, the destruction of homes and the daily struggle to survive. I know that you will feel the same.

The government has clearly sought to alleviate the suffering by providing funds for humanitarian aid and through attempting to exert diplomatic pressure on the Syrian and Russian governments. However, I am not sure that enough has been done and I am very strongly of the opinion that our political leaders must now do more. I therefore urge the government to implement the following proposals immediately: increase substantially the amount of humanitarian aid to the war zones and to the refugee camps in neighbouring countries; double the number of refugees we are willing to resettle in this country – from 20,000 to 40,000 over the next few years; and make a much greater effort to persuade President Putin to recommence the ceasefire negotiations that took place a short while ago.

I hope you are able to support these aims and will use every method at your disposal to bring them about. It is absolutely vital that the advances by the Syrian government are not seen as the solution to the problem as it is unlikely they will bring the conflict to an end.

Yours sincerely

The Right Honourable Theresa May

Prime Minister

10, Downing Street

London

5 December 2016

Dear Prime Minister

The government has clearly sought to alleviate the suffering by providing funds for humanitarian aid and through attempting to exert diplomatic pressure on the Syrian and Russian governments. However, I am not sure that enough has been done and I am very strongly of the opinion that the government must now do more. I therefore urge you to implement the following proposals immediately: increase substantially the amount of humanitarian aid to the war zones and to the refugee camps in neighbouring countries; double the number of refugees we are willing to resettle in this country – from 20,000 to 40,000 over the next few years; and make a much greater effort to persuade President Putin to recommence the ceasefire negotiations that took place a short while ago. I would like you to speak to President Putin personally to request this and also ask other heads of state to do the same.

I hope you are able to support these aims and will be able to put them into effect. It is absolutely vital that the advances by the Syrian government are not seen as the solution to the problem as it is unlikely they will bring the conflict to an end.

Yours sincerely