Whilst I welcome the news that a £2.4 million state-of the-art facility will open next year for elderly mental health patients at Clatterbridge Hospital, I was saddened to read in your article – “staff fears over bed axe”- that twenty-six beds are to be cut as part of the ’shake up’ of services.  

I appreciate the successes of the Crisis Home Treatment team and am very aware of the important role of community care.  However, in some circumstances, inpatient care is essential for the protection of the patient and/or the public.
            
Improvements may have resulted in fewer patients now requiring acute inpatient admission, however, even though there may be empty in-patient facilities, these beds should be left available in case they are needed in the future.  The decision to admit these vulnerable people as inpatients cannot be easy – however, this decision should be based upon clinical and social considerations and not merely on the availability of beds.

Over the last decade there has been a gradual shift from inpatient care to community care – I hope that this latest ’shake up’ is based on clinical evidence and is not just, as I suspect, a way of saving money.  Even in the current climate of financial turmoil and limited resources, surely we should be protecting the most vulnerable people in our society.

This is the team (plus 2 others) who abseiled 200 ft from the Royal Liverpool first thing this morning to raise money for the local park. Mums, older sisters, friends, myself and the local headmistress of Great Meols Primary put our fears behind us to descend the hospital building…. and yes just getting over the edge is the worst part of it!   For all the action shots please go to www.friendsofmeolspark.co.uk  We raised approx £1000 – Next year it’s the boys turn…….. any ideas what they can do to raise money email me!

Straight from the abseil I popped to the Freshers Fair at Liverpool University to say hi to Paul Athans the new Chairman of Liverpool University Conservative Future  (quick Tshirt change too!) Over 100 students had already signed up in the first hour. Their first event, which I’ll be hosting, is on 10th Oct at the University – should anyone be interested please email me  esther@wirralwestconservatives.co.uk

Now I’m heading straight off to Birmingham for the Conservative Party Conference……….

Well it’s been a hectic week putting together the final touches for the Winning Women exhibition that will be happening next week at the Chester Race course. I’m absolutley thrilled with the event. It’s taken nearly 5 months of hard work but it’s been worth. The result being we now have the cream of the female business world from across Wirral, Cheshire and North Wales attending.

From Fashion to Finance, Well being to Work out, Accessories to Actuaries, pampering sessions, a Champagne bar and a cheeky surprise at the end of the  night, it’s all happening next week!

It’s free to attend – I just want as many women to come who are either in business or thinking of setting up in business to attend. There’s seminar sessions too from beating the credit crunch to setting up a new business. We will be holding a raffle – all money going to the Wirral Women and Childrens Aid and other local charities and prizes included : a Lexus for the weekend, a new outfit from TMLewin, a cut colour and blow from Andrew Collinge, a Prada bag, champagne, a luxury hamper …… the list goes on.

So if you want to meet other women in business and you have some free time please come, it’s an open invitation.

The Institute of Directors joined forces with Winning Women (the Business Women’s Organisation I founded 5 years ago to support, promote and connect women in businesss) to award the ‘IoD Winning Women Award’ at their Director of the Year Awards for the North West last Thursday.

The four finalists, all worthy winners and terrific women in business, were Dr Sharon O’Kane, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Renovo, Liz Russell, the Managing Director of EnviroSystems UK Ltd, Debbie Pierce, the Director of the Bury Black Pudding Company and Cindy Metcalf the Director of La Gente Recruitment Company. The  eventual winner was Debbie Pierce who rapidly transformed the Bury Black Pudding Company from a market stall to purpose built factory supplying the UK’s top supermarkets and food retailers.  www.winningwomen.co.uk

…..and what a Super Sunday it turned out to be – 43 people came out to help and work with the Conservative Action Team. The age range  was 13 to 80 and everything in between. A huge thank you  has to go to Angela and John who were left in my kitchen making the bacon butties!

The Sun shone and the people turned out to celebrate Coronation Park being awarded Green Flag status and Cllr David Elderton was on hand hoisted the flag to wave in the new status. The Rotary Club, Reading Newspapers for the blind, The Friends of Ashton Park, The RNLI, the Sailing Club, Hoylake Cottage Hospital and many other local groups where there for what was a successful launch.

After which I went to Upton and helped canvass with Tom our local Cllr, Geoff Gubb, Neville, Alex and the rest of the Upton Action team and from there to meet with local residents in Irby.

Today I’ve been writing to many distraught local residents who have been victims of the Equitable Life Scandal. I will be supporting them and the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s call for compensation for these people in line with Shadow Secretary George Osborne who said ‘It is up to the government now to admit its responsibility, issue the apology that the Ombudsman demands and create the payment scheme. If it doesn’t, we will’.

I was alarmed to read the results of the latest annual report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which looks at the number of women given top jobs in business, politics, and the public sector. It found women’s representation had fallen in almost half of the industries surveyed. It is the biggest backwards step for work place gender equality in the five years the study has been carried out. In politics alone, the number of women MP’s is 19.3%, putting Britain in 70^th place in the world equality lead, behind such countries as Iraq, Afghanistan and China. It would appear that gender equality in the UK is in reverse gear. As the founder and director of Winning Women, a business women’s network, who has worked on the Merseyside Entrepreneurship Commission and the North West Business Women’s Enterprise Forum Group, research from these bodies has shown, overwhelmingly, that role models and networks are vital to women achieving. With fewer women in these jobs, visible role models and accessible networks will invariably shrink. Experts warned that the introduction of new maternity leave, introduced in 2007, could be having an added adverse affect. So, are these latest figures merely a temporary blip or a serious backward slide for gender equality in the UK?

Driving to work today – I, along with every driver in Liverpool City Centre screeched to a stand still when confronted with a 50 foot spider on the side of Concourse House!

The story goes that the spider was the creation of an experiment gone wrong – hatching out of the derelict building in the night. Scientists were out with search lights late yesterday evening trying to capture it and locate any eggs it might have laid.

As I write, the spider’s eggs are being destroyed across the city, creating havoc on the streets – whirl winds and snow storms rising from the ground.

The Spider has left the building and is running through the City Centre …. making its way to the Birkenhead Tunnel!!

I was delighted to hear about the U-turn by the Health Service’s rationing body so enabling the elderly to be eligible for sight-saving drugs

In Wirral West 18 months ago, I took up the battle for 4 elderly ladies to get free treatment. The eldest was 94. She was told she needed an injection every 6 weeks for 2 years to save her eye sight at a cost of £750 per injection, failing to do so would result in her going blind.

Working with her family and the Chief Executive of Wirral University Teaching Hospital Len Richards we managed in July 2007 to get free NHS treatment of Lucentis for the elderly of Wirral. It was a huge victory for many vulnerable people in Wirral.

Having seen first hand the traumatic effects of Wet age-related macular degeneration not only for the person affected but also for their family, this U turn is long over due.

How heartless to allow our elderly to battle for vital medical treatment to stop them going blind. As a society we should be looking after our elderly not draining them of every last penny to pay for care and medical treatment.