'Pardon me, Mr. Speaker, .. ..
                                 .. .. but I'm still on my feet !"

"I'm still standing .. .. .. !"

     "If Gordon Brown calls a snap election, as the rumours have it, we could be out of our offices at the end of next Thursday and not allowed back in to use Parliamentary facilities until our re-elections!

     I have so much on the boil at the moment, with local and national affairs, and the Health Committee .. .. I want to try to complete the work .. .. If you look at the Hospital, we've just got the start of the trial with doctors and I need to be present to make sure that goes successfully.

     In fact, I have a meeting planned with the new Director of Nursing where i will be talking about the whole question of CARE - particularly at 'Worcester Royal', because I'm getting serious complaints about quality of care there !

     Our Out-Of-Hours service in Wyre Forest has just been put out to tender by the PCT for new providers and I want to be around to watch that.

     If the election is called .. .. I will want to be re-elected; very badly!"

R.T. (04 Oct 2007)

    England's healthcare watchdog

The Commission have just (18 Oct) published their annual audit of England's hospital and healthcare Trusts.

PLUS POINTS

• Despite increases in patient numbers (areas with high E. European immigrants find that Hospitals rather than Doctors' surgeries are the preferred 'first port of call'), A&E waiting times were met nationally with 98% of 18 million patients receiving care within four hours.
• The proportion of operations which were cancelled meanwhile fell for the third year in a row.