ELECTIONS: Yeovil Hospital chief meets with Labour candidate

LABOUR candidate Sheena King said she has had a “fascinating” meeting with Yeovil District Hospital chief executive Paul Mears.

Ms King (pictured above) was selected earlier this month as Labour’s candidate to stand in the Yeovil constituency for the General Election on Thursday, May 7, 2015, and one of her first meetings was with the chief exec at the hospital.

“It was a fascinating meeting with Paul Mears discussing the pressures on NHS services with current demand outstripping supply,” she said.

“We spoke about the need for integration of all health and social care services, particularly with an ageing population that has complex needs, the need for more doctors, especially GPs, and the need for improvements in our community care to help ease the pressure on hospital services, so people can stay in their own homes rather than a hospital bed.

“We also spoke about celebrating the diversity of backgrounds of our NHS staff, as the NHS cannot fulfill its skills shortage from the UK alone, and of making staff feel appreciated and valued.

“We discussed the need to encourage staff to try different disciplines, so we have more staff available in acute services, and to think about a more generalised rather than specialised approach to the training of our doctors and nurses in the future.”

Ms King said that all the issues discussed were “issues that Labour take very seriously.”

“We will invest an extra £2.5 billion in the NHS on top of the Conservative spending plans, fully funded by clamping down on tax avoidance schemes, increasing taxes on property worth over £2 million, and making tobacco companies contribute towards the costs of tackling tobacco related illnesses,” she said.

“Labour will introduce 5,000 new homecare workers to work in integrated care teams and enable people to stay in their own homes, 8,000 more GPs, 3,000 more midwives and 20,000 more nurses.

“This really is the best way forward to reduce the pressures on our overstretched hospitals and to introduce a more integrated system of care.”

The General Election will be held on Thursday, May 7, 2015.

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