Sir Mike’s Month, June 2020
I am delighted that businesses are reopening; with more opening this coming week and I welcome the Prime Minister's ‘New Deal’ announcement for jobs, skills and infrastructure.
It is absolutely right to start rebuilding our economy whilst playing "whack-a-mole" with the virus when needed. We need to keep this virus under control and also slowly get back to normal. There are health implications whichever way we do this and this is the best balancing act we can hope to achieve.
Apart from coronavirus, my email inbox this month has been filled with emails on the Black Lives Matter campaign following the appalling crime committed by police officers from the Minneapolis Police Department which led to the tragic death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man wrongfully accused of using a counterfeit note at a store.
During a sermon in Selma, Alabama, on 8 March 1965, Dr Martin Luther King Jr. said that “a man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true” - a thought that is more commonly paraphrased today as: ‘our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.’
Work in Parliament
In Parliament this month I called for a debate on the accountability of NHS Trusts.
I was delighted when the Prime Minister announced funding for six new hospitals - including West Herts. However, it is devastating that the Trust is doing all in its power to spend that money on refurbishing Watford General. A lot of MPs feel that it is wrong that the management of NHS Trusts are totally unaccountable to the people they serve.
This is nothing to do with the frontline. It is nothing to do with the brilliant work that has been going on over years and in respect of Covid;
it is to do with the management of trusts and how we can hold them to account.
In Parliament this month I called for a debate on the accountability of NHS Trusts.
I was delighted when the Prime Minister announced funding for six new hospitals - including West Herts.
However, it is devastating that the Trust is doing all in its power to spend that money on refurbishing Watford General.
A lot of MPs feel that it is wrong that the management of NHS Trusts are totally unaccountable to the people they serve.
This is nothing to do with the frontline. It is nothing to do with the brilliant work that has been going on over years and in respect of Covid;
it is to do with the management of trusts and how we can hold them to account.
Hospital Campaign
I joined one of the virtual sessions of the West Herts Hospital’s Stakeholder Reference Group last week where we learned that following pressure from local campaigners, the West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust can now bid for £590million.
This is fantastic news; it means that a new hospital on a central site is really affordable. Numerous new hospitals are being built across the country on similar budgets.
The Trust can no longer hide behind the ‘there is not enough money’ excuse to reject the new site option.
It is obvious that a new site would be easier and quicker than any disastrous attempt to renovate the crumbling Watford General Hospital whilst trying to keep it operational at the same time.
Quite simply, this is a great opportunity and the Trust would be foolish not to grasp it.
Armed Forces Week
Last year we celebrated Armed Forces Day in Gadebridge Park with over 3,000 people attending the event. Sadly, we cannot do the same this year, however, we will still be celebrating Armed Forces Day in Dacorum.
It’s a difficult year this year, but any way we can show support for the armed forces is welcome. The Armed Forces have been tremendous during this pandemic. They have stepped in to fill a logistics role to ensure our NHS has all the PPE and testing equipment they need. They have done it with utmost professionalism.
We have some of the best armed forces in the world, so it is only right that one day a year we come together to celebrate the work they do and be proud of them and the whole military wider family.
