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Norwich Hospital and Mental Health Hub Visits

We know that so much more needs to be done to tackle NHS waiting times and to address the mental health crisis faced by our youth.

This month, I was pleased to join the Labour candidate for Norwich North, Alice Macdonald as we met the hard-working staff at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and also the fantastic team at the Risebrow Mental Health hub in Norwich City centre.

It was really important to hear all the pressing issues they are facing and I was also pleased to share Labour’s plans on how we would do things differently.

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Defibrillator and CPR Training in Parliament

After my Parliamentary debate on increasing public access to Defibrillators in July, awareness is increasing, and more training is now becoming available.

It was great to have so many members of Parliament and staff learning about this lifesaving training and these devices. I hope that we can continue to spread the message of awareness around the whole country and save lives as a result.

This event comes after the good news in September about the new defibrillator at Lesnes Abbey Lodge. A big thank you to Lesnes Abbey Friends who worked so hard to make that happen and for inviting me to see the new device.

Thanks especially to the Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle for hosting the event in Parliament and also to the London Ambulance Service for providing the training.

Let’s continue to push for progress.

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New Defibrillator at Lesnes Abbey Lodge

I was delighted to pop in and see the new defibrillator at Lesnes Abbey Lodge this month. It was great to be invited by Lesnes Abbey Friends to meet them and hear how they raised an incredible £2,000, with support from local organisations, to install this life saving device.

You may be aware that increasing access to and awareness of defibrillators is an issue I’m incredibly passionate about. In July this year, I organised a Westminster Hall debate on this issue and challenged the Government to do more where possible on public access to defibrillators. In the debate, I said:

“Defibrillators represent an incredible technical advance. They are lightweight, easy to use and designed only to help and not harm the patient. The issue is not about their design but their distribution and public awareness of what they are and how to use them.”

It was great therefore to join Lesnes Abbey Friends as they celebrated adding this important device to our community.

I also got the opportunity to join Lesnes Abbey’s first ever Woodland Festival. This event involved a jam-packed day of events and activities and was a great celebration of Lesnes Abbey and Woods.

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Abena appointed Shadow Minister for Women’s Health and Mental Health

I hope you will be pleased to know that I have recently accepted the position of Shadow Minister for Women’s Health and Mental Health. This is such an important role and these are issues that I’m really passionate about.

My main role as a Shadow Minister is scrutiny. I am committed to ensuring that the government is held accountable in legislative procedures and in ministerial conduct. This might include exploring government policy, finding its faults, and critiquing it. That being said, as an opposition minister I am part of a government in waiting. This means that I must ensure that Labour is ready for government in case of electoral victory, and ready to deliver our mission to build an NHS Fit for the Future.

I am pleased to say that Labour is committed to getting waiting lists down and getting people treated on time. We have a 10-year plan for change and modernisation and this will include one of the biggest expansions of the NHS workforce in history. But more than that, we plan to put individual care and mental health treatment at the heart of our mission. An issue that has for too long been in the shadows.

With Labour, more care will be delivered on your doorstep, out of the hospital and in the community. We will focus on prevention and a move towards transformational new technologies.

In my new role, I will be working with various charities and stakeholders, listening to experts in Women’s Health and Mental Health, and considering how Labour will do things differently. However, I will also be speaking to those working in our health and care sectors and the patients receiving care.

I’d love to see Women’s Health and Mental Health services transformed into something that the British people can be truly proud of. I want everybody to receive the support that they deserve, delivered as quickly and efficiently as possible.

It is Labour who has the plan and the mission to build a NHS Fit for the Future and there for you when you need it. I encourage you to take a quick look at Labour’s plans for health services, which you can read here: Building an NHS fit for the future.

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Age UK Summer Reception 2023

Thank you to everyone from Erith and Thamesmead who contacted me about attending Age UK’s Summer Reception and the important issue of healthcare for older people.

I’m pleased to say that I attended their July event and spoke to many members of the Age UK team, their policy experts, and elderly people struggling with long waiting lists and a lack of support.

You can see my post from the event here: https://twitter.com/abenaopp/status/1679159735918944256 

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Equal access to defibrillators can save lives says Abena Oppong-Asare MP

We all know having access to life-saving defibrillators saves lives. The issue is not their design but their location and public awareness about what they are and how to use them.

Having access to a life-saving defibrillator depends on where you live. Today, I called on the Government to address this cruel unfairness to save lives. That was my message in my Westminster Hall debate on public access to Defibrillators.

Research from the Resuscitation Council UK shows that access to defibrillators, or AEDs, is not fairly distributed across England. Each year, there are 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the UK, with less than one in ten surviving. Whilst immediate CPR and defibrillation can more than double the chances of survival, defibrillators are used in less than one in ten cases. If you have a cardiac arrest and have access to a defibrillator within a minute, have a 90% chance of survival.

According to the BMJ, access to a defibrillator varies widely by location:

  • 140 per 100,000 people in Swansea
  • 61 per 100,000 people in London
  • 2 per 100,000 people in Birmingham

The issue was highlighted to me by the experience of my constituent, Bonnie McGhee, who works on the cardiology unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Bonnie sadly lost her father to cardiac arrest and has since successfully raised funds for a defibrillator in his memory.

Access to a defibrillator may have saved his life. Bonnie successfully fundraised for a defibrillator in memory of her father.

To save lives, defibrillators must be in a well-signposted location, unlocked and easy to find so that members of the community can access them immediately in an emergency. They must be maintained and ready for use. Information about defibrillator locations is hard to come by. People do not know where to find them and how to use them. The Circuit is a national database of defibrillators but it is incomplete, meaning that emergency services may not be able to direct someone to save a life.

In my debate today I said “Knowing where a defibrillator is and how to use one saves lives. Learning simple resuscitation skills can make all the difference in an emergency. Today, I’m calling on Ministers to listen and help save lives.”

You can read my full speech here and watch it here.

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Age UK Bexley Visit to Parliament

It was wonderful to meet the team from Age UK Bexley this month after their Parliament tour. It was encouraging to see such a great turnout and to discuss their work and the support they provide to older people in Erith and Thamesmead.

As always, please get in touch if you live in Erith & Thamesmead and would like me to arrange a tour. You can contact me via email on abena.oppongasare.mp@parliament.uk. 

You can also see my social media post about this visit below or here.

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Hosting British Heart Foundation Event

We all know that Defibrillators and CPR save lives. I’m happy to support all the great work done to increase awareness and the number of Defibrillators and CPR Training in our communities.

This month, I hosted an event with the British Heart Foundation to discuss the work they are doing on this important issue and share our thoughts with other Members of Parliament.  You can see my post about this here: https://twitter.com/abenaopp/status/1638501687051558912

I want to send a special thank you to Bonnie McGhee, my local constituent who first contacted me about this issue regarding the lack of Defibrillators in our community. You can read about her story here. You can also learn more about BHF’s RevivR on their website here.

If you have any thoughts or would like to help, please get in touch with me at abena.oppongasare.mp@parliament.uk.

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Home Instead visit

Home Instead in Erith provide vital care to ageing residents to enable them to live happily, comfortably & independently at home. The office opened in the latter part of 2019, and most of their journey was heavily impacted by the Covid. However, they came through it and are now supporting clients across Erith and Thamesmead.

Last week I met with them to discuss their experience through the pandemic, how they are being affected by the recruitment crisis & how increasing costs, from living to fuel, are putting people off the care profession.

 
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Government must do more to support people to self-isolate

As part of my role in the Shadow Treasury Team, I have been pushing the Government to provide more support to people who need to self-isolate.

Labour has always said that health and economic measures must go hand-in-hand, but the Government’s failure has meant too many people have to choose between self-isolating and paying the bills.

At this weeks’ Treasury questions, I asked the Chancellor about reports that the Treasury had suppressed information about how the furlough scheme could be used to support self-isolating employees. This shocking revelation show’s how poor the Government’s approach to economic support during the pandemic has been.

I called on the Chancellor to appear before the joint parliamentary inquiry into the handling of the Covid crisis to explain why the Government has not listened to the experts and introduced a robust self-isolation support scheme.