This morning, I joined pupils at Garratt Park School in Earslfield to plant the 500,000th tree of Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan's Trees for London scheme.
It's vital that we make London a green city for the future, where everyone has access to healthy outdoor space. Today marks International Stammer Awareness Day. I know from my own experience, the impact the stigma of stammering has on those affected. We must not create a narrative of trying to fix people with speech disfluency. Instead we need to work to create a more inclusive society.
In recent weeks, thousands of people across south London and south-east England have signed my petition calling on NHS England to keep children's cancer services at St George's Hospital, including many parents who have told me how worried they are about this proposed closure.
Last week, NHS England launched its consultation on the future of services at St George’s Hospital and I want to make sure that we have every chance to defend and protect our local services. Keeping services at St George's is best for our patients and best for the NHS, but this can only happen with the support of people in the community who will be affected by this decision. Please spare a few minutes to complete to consultation questionnaire and share your views with the NHS. The consultation is running until Monday 18 December. See full details of the consultation here and please share this as widely as possible with friends and family here.
Not many people know this about me: when I was young, due to significant childhood trauma, I had a stammer. All too often it made me too afraid to speak, for fear of being ridiculed.
People that have stammers aren't victims. Stammers are a normal part of life. Today I had such an amazing time with the ladies on Loose Women, opening up publicly about it for the first time. With greater awareness and better representation of people with stammers, we can become a society where people who are disfluent are not stigmatised. Great as always to catch up with my friend Denise Welch. And shout out to Adam Alexander in Tooting for my new, fresh hair colour.
Police forces across England are set to stop attending many incidents concerning mental health under a new National Partnership Agreement: Right Care, Right Person.
The Government's announcement leaves far too many questions unanswered and fails to tackle the root problem of lengthy NHS waiting lists in mental health services. I have written to the Health Secretary, Steve Barclay, asking him to come clean on what action he is taking to tackle mental health waiting lists. Read my full letter here:
In September, I’ll be taking on the London to Brighton cycle along with Fleur Anderson, MP for Putney. We’re fundraising as part of the Time for a Change appeal to help support St George’s Hospital Charity in their work to provide assistance to patients, their families, and the staff who care for them across St George’s Hospital, Queen Mary’s Hospital, and community sites.
It’s a 55-mile route from Clapham to Brighton, and we’ll be joined by other fantastic #TeamGeorges participants. Neither of us have done this before and it’s a big challenge for us. The Time for a Change Appeal is supporting children’s services at St George’s Hospital. We know that St George's Trust provides absolutely outstanding care for patients and incredible support for families, but sadly the facilities often don’t reflect this level of care. If you want to support us, our JustGiving link is here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/fleurandrosenal2b
All too often, children are stuck on long waiting lists for mental health treatment and thousands of people are having their referrals closed before an appointment.
This Tory Government caused the crisis in mental health services - when will they fix it?
On the 75th birthday of the NHS, I joined the amazing team at St George’s Hospital, to say, a big thank you for the incredible care and compassion they show every day. I'm proud to work side-by-side with the team.
Today, I appeared on BBC Question Time, where I held the Government to account on the shameful Rwanda policy, their neglect of the NHS, and the issues surrounding Thames Water.
Our local NHS board have announced that Trinity Medical Centre will close on 31st July. The decision to close the surgery is deeply disappointing and I am concerned that it will leave thousands of local residents scrambling to find another GP, including vulnerable patients.
At a time when local residents are already waiting weeks to see a GP, this decision is a shocking, short-sighted solution for users of the surgery. People will find themselves trying to squeeze onto the books of existing practices, travelling further to see a GP, losing the strong and trusted relationships with their GPs they've built over time. The blame for this decision lies squarely with this Conservative Government who have imposed 13 years of underfunding and neglect on our local NHS services. I have already called on the Health Secretary, Steve Barclay, to meet with the community to see the impact of this decision first-hand and to reverse this disastrous decision. |
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