VIEWPOINT FOR 4 DECEMBER 2008
FROM DR RICHARD TAYLOR

I am writing this while waiting for the Queen's Speech. 
The forecasts imply it is to be rather meagre and that several proposed Bills will be left out to allow time for more measures to address the financial crisis as and when necessary. 

There is more interest in the Speaker's statement after the affair involving Damian Green, the widely respected opposition front bench spokesman on immigration, who was arrested and whose papers from his offices and home were impounded by the police. I do not know enough about the affair to apportion blame but I would be very worried if I thought my files of dealings with constituents, that are every bit as confidential as the medical records I kept in my previous work, could be impounded easily and read by police or investigators. 
As an independent MP, without the backing of a large political party, I need the protection of the Speaker more than other MPs.
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One prestigious local award has gone almost unnoticed by the papers I have seen. This is the Society Guardian Public Services Award for Innovation and Progress – People management. 
This was won by Baxter College because, in the words of the report, "Fired by the vision and energy of its strategic leadership team, a failing Worcestershire school has come alive". 

Head, Dave Seddon, and his team have quadrupled the number of pupils achieving five A* to C grades, increased the number of students at the school from 420 to 1130 and recruited a full team of 135 permanent staff. What an achievement and it is only five years ago that I was receiving sad letters from parents disappointed that the schools admissions process meant that their children were having to go to Harry Cheshire School as it was then called.
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Another important award that did achieve recognition was the gold medal for Best Tourism Experience at the Heart of England Excellence in Tourism Awards won by the Severn Valley Railway after its amazing recovery from the widespread damage caused by the floods in last year's summer storms. 
The award is richly deserved. 
A lesser organisation with less dedicated volunteers, supporters and staff would have never recovered from the devastation to so many lengths of the line and our own preserved steam railway and massive tourist attraction would have been lost for ever.
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I have just had a meeting with the Medical Director of Take Care Now, the firm responsible for our GP out-of-hours service. 
He reported a 47% increase in the work across the county since they took over the service. They are auditing the service carefully to discover the parts that need improving and they are working from their already extensive experience of providing out-of-hours services for large parts of the East of England.
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Although sadly it is most unlikely to lead to any change in the post office closures that have taken place so recently I have obtained a debate on the closure consultation process and I plan to expose the short comings of this process in comparison with NHS consultations which have improved because of the stand we took following the mockery of consultation over our own hospital downgrading now ten years ago.

R.T.

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