The government have announced they are removing the NHS bursaries for student nurses, midwives, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, podiatrists, radiographers, dietetics, ODP's. This means we will be left with THOUSANDS of pounds worth of debt, which could take years to pay back from a salary which has been repeatedly frozen and capped. Healthcare degrees are like no other, we work 50% of the time on placement and 50% in university. Our hours are long and demanding both academically and professionally. To have our bursaries removed is insulting and upsetting. Furthermore, these loans will act as a deterent for people going to university who do not want to be saddled with extortinate debt. Healthcare courses appeal to a wide range of students from all back grounds and these high costs are very daunting. Already people are saying they are fearful of these costs meaning people are losing their dreams. This is NOT fair.

Bristol Council currently uses four glyphosate herbicides including Monsanto's Roundup on our streets and parks. This is despite the fact that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified glyphosate as likely to cause cancer in humans. The WHO finding sits alongside a wealth of existing evidence that raises alarming questions marks over the long term safety of exposure to glyphosate both on its own and in combination with other chemicals found in formulas such as Roundup. The use of glyphosates has already been banned or restricted in 8 countries. It is not acceptable that ourselves, our children and the animals we share this city with are being routinely exposed to these chemicals whether we like it or not. If Bristol is to have any credentials as the current European Green Capital, it must exercise the precautionary principle and follow the example of cities such as Chicago, Paris and Rotterdam by banning this spraying in public places. This is a matter of great importance for those of us who care about each other's health and the health of our children, our cats, our dogs and all the flora and fauna of this city, of course including our beloved bees. For more information see this article from The Bristol Cable: https://thebristolcable.org/2015/10/bristol-monsanto-and-chemicals/ There are viable safe alternatives to glyphosates. The Netherlands have outright banned glyphosates in public spaces and are using a hot water treatment instead. A hot water and foam method is also available in the UK and Bristol Council is already aware that this can be a more effective alternative than hot water on its own. Glyphosates are the cheapest option but we must send the message loud and clear that value is not just about price and that the health and safety issues around glyphosate render its 'cheap and easy' status irrelevant. Other effective methods may cost more in cash terms but represent far better value to local residents. Using a formula such as Roundup in our public spaces is simply unacceptable no matter how cheap and quick it makes the task of urban weed management.

For those with neurological-developmental disorders, including mild autism and autism without a disability, there are no specialised community services for adults with such disabilities. Social workers and doctors are dealing with those with more mild to moderate learning and neurological-developmental, including asperger syndrome and autism without a learning disability, but have no specialist resources, therapy, or idea on how to support these specific group of adults. I want all local social services and NHS teams through England and in all counties to give adults with autism and asperger syndrome an allocated social worker or doctor that is specifically specialised in long-term developmental disorders. But many people with this disabilities are ignored, given the wrong support, or are forgotton. So the all the government, social services, and MP's needs to implement specialised community teams for adults with long-term and mild to moderate developmental disorders, with specialised social workers, psychiatrists, and advocacy teams. At the moment, alot of high-functioning autistic adults get classed as having more emotional or mental problems, if they do not have a learning disability label on top of their autistic diagnosis - but many autistic adults are not mentally ill, they have a neurological developmental disorder. So the government needs to stop throwing autistic adults into the mental health sector teams and start opening up specialised teams through out the UK that only deal with autism related disorders, including asperger syndrome.. Some areas do have adult clinics for asperger syndrome and mild autism sufferers, but many areas don't - Derbyshire, as I know, do not offer specialised social services workers or NHS staff to adults with asperger syndrome. You can get diagnosed with asperger syndrome now, in Derbyshire, for example...but there are not specialised teams available, so some of us with asperger syndrome get allocated into the mental health system which is unfair, and this means we don't get the proper treatment.. So all local authorities needs to now step up and make it law that all counties must have specialised community teams through the UK and not just in certain parts of the country. So many adults with autism and asperger syndrome, especially those that cannot access learning disability teams, are being left out and not receiving adequate long-term support from their local nhs and social services team. Many autistic and asperger syndrome syndrome adults need more long-term and specialised support, in order to gain the community support that they deserve. This will mean that adults with asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism could access proper treatment and social care. If we could have proper social care teams and NHS clinics that offer specialised support tailored around all areas of the UK, then we could get the right to lead a normal and healthy life. This will improve the quality of families, adults affected with asperger syndrome and autism, and any money can be put into getting adults with aspergers/autism into a good cause.

The restriction on GP referrals was introduced in July 2015. We had heard nothing of this and it appears it was sneaked in under the carpet. The excuse given is an overuse of hospital services in particular outpatient appointments. Does anyone go to an outpatient appointment unless required?. If a GP has decided that your ailment requires further investigation or treatment that should be the case. This cap on appointments could undermines the GPs professional status. The decision to refer a patient for treatment should not be based on purely financial reasons. The Referral Management System (RMS) is a scheme with a committee that take the decision on whether a patient will be referred for further treatment or tests. (what does that committee cost?) My husband is waiting for a decision from the RMS committee. His GP is in support but states that it is outside of her control. In the meantime he has to wait. Will it be yes or no. Please sign the petition to try to stop this cut, Many thanks We had a result this morning (1st December) a referral letter arrived. It shows that a little bit of pressure goes a long way.

We put forward something this town has needed since 2003, a minor injuries unit for children alongside an extension to the wonderful Brookdale dementia services, already next to that site. Let’s give something back to the community that is more important to our hearts than more shops. Margaret Brown and I (Cath Regan) are the co-chairs of CARES (Coalition Against Removal of kids Emergency & other Services), the team who fought tirelessly years ago for the return of our A & E and maternity services for our children. It is about time the powers that be FINALLY did something right and good for our children and elderly. We don’t want more shops or houses; there are plenty of both lying empty in Southport, just somewhere closer than Ormskirk and Liverpool to take our sick children to. Junior doctors are currently striking and A & E units are pushed to their limits. A minor injuries unit would give us the immediate peace of mind for our children, without 4 hour waiting times at an already full A & E. It is also a ‘perfect’ location between Formby and Southport with room for parking. Let’s finally return something that should never have been taken away thirteen years ago. I ask all parents, grandparents and families to support this and make it happen.

The proposals were developed in consultation with the local community, prioritising feedback from rough sleepers at the group's weekly Love Kitchen. Love Activists hope to gather 1250 signatures to force the council to debate the proposals at a full council meeting. Reasoning/Rationale: 1. In May, the Supreme Court ruled that when local authorities make vulnerability assessments, a 'homeless person' should be compared with an 'ordinary person who is at risk of becoming homeless'. There is no doubt that any homeless person is 'significantly more vulnerable' than an ordinary person, therefore everybody living on the street should be assessed as being in priority need. The judgement also made it clear that while councils are often under huge financial strain, this must not be used as an excuse for avoiding their legal duties. To guarantee duty of care and legal obligations are met, all local authorities must provide permanent housing for anybody living on the streets. 2. Housing first pilot project had a 70% success rate in Brighton & Hove - helping 7 out of 10 people with high support needs into accommodation. 3. Extended winter provision: additional services provided over a period of time e.g. every night from November to March. If the material resources exist to provide shelter from a severe weather emergency, economic arguments against keeping the shelters open are not as powerful as the humanitarian ones for opening them. (Copy & pasted from 'Homeless Link') Humanitarian Response: SWEP should be applied responsibly to prevent death at all times; 3 consecutive nights at zero or below is the minimum requirement. Local authorities should consider factors such as wet weather and wind chill, snow coverage and duration of extreme weather when looking at provision. Preventing deaths on the streets is the aim of the protocol, so if this demands more beds and a longer response the local authority should do everything it can to prevent harm to individuals. Economics cannot change the weather any more than economics can determine people's relative vulnerability to each other. 4. It doesn't have to be severely wet to have a severe impact if you're sleeping on the streets. Severely windy, wet weather is an emergency, as is extremely hot, dry weather. Homeless Link offers advice and guidance to BHT, St Mungo's and Brighton & Hove City Council. Currently their minimum definition of severe weather is when the temperature drops below zero for three consecutive nights. (Copy & pasted from 'Homeless Link') There is no strict definition of what counts as ‘severe weather’. Local authorities should proactively identify any weather that could increase the risk of serious harm to people sleeping rough and put measures in place to minimise this. This includes extreme cold, wind and rain. It is important not to presume when, or in what form, severe weather will occur. Sleeping rough is never comfortable, but the suffering is exacerbated by all elements It doesn't have to be severely wet to have a severe impact if you're sleeping on the streets. ('Homeless Link') http://www.homeless.org.uk/sites/default/files/site-attachments/Winter%20provision%20guidance%202015-16.pdf 5. If this doesn't happen there will be no truly affordable places to live and more people will inevitably become homeless. 6. This would make use of empty properties, keep people safe and avoid waste of tax payers money, private money and time spent on security, policing and court costs. (Copy & pasted from 'Homeless Link') In addition to the direct risk associated with severe weather, local authorities should work alongside other local statutory and voluntary services to identify and mitigate actions taken during severe weather that can increase risk for those sleeping rough. For example, people may choose to sleep in riskier places, such as in bins, where they can find cover. They may also enter buildings or property illegally, or increase their substance use as a coping mechanism. 7. No single authority can successfully move to implement all of these measures, because if they 'move first', their service capacity would risk being overwhelmed by people migrating to that local authority. Therefore, we must work towards implementing these measures nationally. [email protected] twitter.com/loveactivists_ facebook.com/loveactivistsbrighton

We think there are 10.2 million hypothyroid patients in the UK so this is a significant number. The NHS won't prescribe (see research links on Prezi below) anything other than Levothyroxine because Levo costs £26 a year and T3 costs £1300 per patient per year. This is a case of mindset myopia because our research indicates that the long term cost to the NHS and taxpayer is much higher through prescribing extra medication and hospitals referrals required due to associated conditions such as high blood pressure, heart problems and mental illness etc. The lack of interests from GPs has pushed many hypothyroid patients to self-medication because they are fed up of feeling ill. This means patients are taking strong hormones with no supervision. My Prezi contains the full list of links for the research to put my presentation together - http://prezi.com/0ljwmhl87lnv/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

There's already a shortage of UK trained nurses and the withdrawal of bursaries and introduction of loans will be detrimental in recruiting people for training. It will lead to even greater crisis in health care provision.

I have had my own daughter in mental health services from age 14 she is now 20 and still in the services but out of hospital a year ago. But to get help its a battle at every step she has been waiting 12 months for her PIP money she only gets one half of it but after they accepted her claim on both parts why wont they pay her. They owe her nearly 5000 pound in PIP. She gone through enough being in hospital being neglected verbally abused threatened had to get the CQC we had over 20 complaints that was in one of the hospitals she was in on a particular ward for only 3 months we had those over 20 complaints. It was awful time for us all but there is not enough support for parents, siblings, grandparents etc I've lost all my immediate family and friends just because my daughter was in hospital and has a mental health illness. So i felt and still feel totally alone. We live in Wrexham in North Wales i travelled to Abergele 5 days a week a good 120 miles round trip everytime spent upto 8 hours per day there with my daughter cause i didnt trust staff there. She was once said by staff she is like a piece of furniture, i was disgusted by their comment just because she was a quiet girl who was severely depressed self harming etc staff calling themselves her 2nd mother or 2nd granny hugging her while they did she would steal their pass to abscond etc its totally wrong staff leaving medicine keys in toilets and my daughter had them it could of gone so tragically wrong glad to say it didnt she handed them in after an hour. But no one ever told me i could get help or where to go to find help. Constant absconding cause staff there were not trained well enough. Young staff just there for money not to care. My daughter was locked up in between to double doors in a bedroom with nothing in it for 3 months it was disgusting staff falling asleep while on her observations of 1 to 1 arms lengh but they be sitting in a big comfy armchair in corridor reading a book over 2 metres away while my daughter would have pairs of socks there to ligature with which she did on several occasions. Better training for staff and i think people should be aged 25 before working with mental health patients in or out of hospital they at least have some life experiences not like a 18 year old not knowing much, how can they support grown men or women when they dont know themselves. Better pay for support workers who are the frontliners in care in hospitals, private companies and at home. They do all the dirty work take abuse and get attacked but their pay is pennies you pay them nurses also.

Our area is expanding rapidly and we have a high proportion of young families who need better access to GP services. It is almost impossible to get an on-the-day appointment to see the doctor and some patients are waiting up to 4 weeks to see a doctor about non-urgent problems.

Being a type 1 diabetic I need to know what carbohydrates I am consuming to allow me the chance to keep blood sugars in target range to prevent complications.

They have made this decision, without consultation with patients, or other interested parties, such as Coeliac UK in order to save £70 000per annum. Whilst I am fortunate enough to be able to make the additional food purchases that will be required, many people will not be in the same position as me and will eat gluten containing food to save money. The CCG further state that gluten free foods are now of a similar price to gluten containing food, which is simply not the case. Furthermore, those who do not live with access to a supermarket that sells such food (and most local, or convenience stores do not) will suffer... There is an additional issue regarding those who are newly diagnosed, who trust the food on prescription, which they know will not give them symptoms.