AT the annual meeting of the All Party Floods Group, I was very pleased to be re-elected as one of the vice-chairmen. We have planned meetings with the Secretary of State, Hilary Benn, and with the Environment Agency to discuss the lessons learnt from recent floods.
Later in the year we hope to have a meeting to discuss planning issues and the use of better building and paving materials and soak-away construction that will help to keep surface water out of drains, sewers and culverts.
The National Flood Forum continues to do excellent work helping those affected by flooding across the whole country and in Bewdley the Residents Flood Committee is pleased with the effectiveness of the pallet defences on the Wribbenhall side of the river that are now being used to good effect in several places along the Severn.
Of course, the demountable defences in Bewdley are the best answer and at the All Party Group meeting with Hilary Benn I shall ask about the progress of negotiations for these highly effective defences elsewhere.
I attended a meeting organised by the Royal National Institute for the Blind about treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration, an important cause of blindness.
Interim guidance has been given by NICE about the use of a drug for this condition but the final ruling that hopefully will make prescription mandatory is not expected until later this year.
The RNIB had accurate information about which areas of the country are using the drug now before the final guidance appears. I regret Worcestershire is among the worst.
I do have disagreements with our PCT about the use of new therapeutic agents and the decisions reached by their complex case panel.
As the NHS is no longer in deficit, money should not now be a determinant for the provision of clinically indicated drugs.
However, I have sympathy with our PCT as, compared with some other parts of the country, our county is under-funded so the availability of resources still has to be taken into account.
The county’s GPs are understandably angry about the Government’s attempts to make them open for additional hours.
The Government appears to have just discovered that the contract they negotiated with the GPs stopped evening and weekend working and so they wish to change the contract.
Surely a compromise could have been reached before we faced confrontation? Our GPs are working hard in their 50+ hour week now and something will have to go if they are to move even three hours to evenings or weekends.