Budget May Provide Clues on Funding for Local Hospitals
Report back from Andy Slaughter, MP for Hammersmith and Chiswick
Andy Slaughter MP
October 21, 2024
Another busy week in Parliament as the election for seats on Select Committees got underway. Most seats are now filled, and those Committees will soon be conducting their first official meetings to determine the future programme of work.
As Chair, I am looking forward to holding the first official meeting of the Justice Select Committee in the next couple of weeks.
All MP’s with hospital rebuilds schemes (that’s the one Boris Johnson called the ‘New Hospitals Programme’ but forgot to leave any money for) met with Health Secretary Wes Streeting on Thursday. Our local hospitals have the biggest schemes in the country (three major hospitals and a £3 billion price tag) and worst maintenance backlog of over £800 million. We won’t know where in the schedule we are until the spending review next spring, though we may get some indication in the budget. Be assured Ben Coleman MP and I lose no opportunity to press the case for Charing Cross, Hammersmith and St Mary’s.
This week there was a special Council meeting for tributes to the late Charlie Trellogan, who died a few weeks short of his 100th birthday. He had an eventful life as part of the Royal Navy in World War 2 seeing active service in the Pacific, as a black cab driver, and as councillor and Mayor for Hammersmith & Fulham. It was my great delight to be his friend and co-councillor for many years.
This weekend I was very pleased to go along to the Chiswick Repair Café at Christ Church, Turnham Green. It was a very enjoyable morning talking to the organisers of the café and seeing how the volunteers expertly mended items for local people. I will be sure to visit again.
Lastly, I would like to mention a very worthy local fundraising effort for children of Fulham Cross Academy and Fulham Cross Girls School. The schools are not in my constituency but many of the students are my constituents and the cause is very worthwhile, so I am happy to support their efforts. The schools are trying to fundraise for fifteen students and five teachers to travel to a rural area of Malawi next July to help build a community centre for disabled children. You can find more information on the trip and how to contribute here.
Best wishes,
Andy
andy@andyslaughter.com
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |