Leicestershire LINk Newsletter 7
Neurological Issues to be High on the Agenda The LINk is planning an exciting event in August looking at services for people who have neurological conditions. Neurological conditions are a widespread group including well known illnesses such as Multiple Sclerosis, Epilepsy and Parkinson’s Disease, Motor Neurone Disease and lesser known conditions such as Progressive Supranuclear Palsy or Fibromyalgia. These conditions affect significant numbers of the population but they often have a low profile in terms of public awareness and service provision. We will be inviting speakers from NHS Leicestershire County & Rutland, NHS Leicester City and UHL NHS Trust.
Policy Information at Your Fingertips... From hung parliament to a coalition The election has happened and we’re in a position that we’ve not been in since the end of the Second World War; we now have a coalition government in place between the Conservatives and the Liberals Democrats. Once published, the policy priorities will inform us which of the policies from the two party manifestos will become the government’s main concerns. It is clear from press releases that the government are keen to work on cutting Britain’s deficit, how they intend to do this, is still unclear. So what does the coalition document say about Health &Social Care? Well not much, the coalition document makes very little reference to Health or Social Care. What should the priorities be? Andrew Lansley the Secretary of State for Health has a major job ahead so, what if we passed over
This event will give you the opportunity to learn more about the services for people with neurological conditions and raise issues with senior staff from the health organisations who plan and deliver those services. We will also be inviting representatives from the voluntary sector who will be able to provide information about the services that they provide. Following the event we are hoping to set up a LINk Neurological Task Group, which will follow through issues identified by LINk members. We will be circulating details of the event to all LINk members so watch this space and don’t miss this exciting event. For more information please contact Christine.
this responsibility to you – what would you do? The telephone rings and it’s the Prime Minister asking you to become the new health secretary – your new job would make you responsible for:
£110 billion budget staff of more than a million the social care and health of the whole nation (no pressure!)
What would you do? What changes would you make first (if any)? What would your priorities be? Please do write in and let us know. On a serious note: We are still unsure of what the future holds for LINks however we do hope we can continue the impact driven work we’re doing. We are very keen to work with our local politicians; we have a number of things in common, in particular, creating better health and social care outcomes for Leicestershire's local people. Contact Saima if you would like to discuss any of the above.