Westminster Report

BY Southend West MP Anna Firth.

EARLIER this month I joined the launch of the Jo Cox Foundation’s report – ‘No place in politics: tackling abuse and intimidation. A call to action’.

The report considers the impact of abuse and intimidation on British democracy – identifying and categorising 28 recommendations to improve civility in public life and to promote respectful politics. The online abuse directed at politicians and officials is appalling and something needs to change urgently.

I want to make Southend safer. Here in Southend, we are only too aware of what happens when violent rhetoric becomes action.

Sir David was brutally attacked and killed by an Islamist extremist while holding his regular surgery. The parallels with Jo Cox’s murder are all too evident and only recently Mike Freer, the Conservative MP for Finchley and Golders Green, announced he was quitting politics due to receiving multiple threats and intimidation from Islamist extremists.

Clearly this situation cannot continue. Along with cleaning up politics from within, we also need to be able to have open and honest discourse about the societal threats to politicians and public servants from violent extremists.

I want to make Southend healthier. NHS dentistry has been in the news with the Government’s launch of its NHS Dental Recovery Plan, which aims to deliver an extra 2.5 million appointments over the next year.

I questioned the Secretary of State on what provisions Southend will be getting as we are a population of over 180,000 served by only three NHS dental practices. This is clearly not good enough and my constituents are having to wait far too long to see a dentist.

I will keep pressing the Department of Health to make sure that Southend gets what it needs to improve this situation as soon as possible.

The other day I made my quarterly visit to Southend Hospital where, before being taken on a tour of the hospital, I had a lengthy one-to-one meeting with the Chief Operating Officer, Andrew Pike. I asked him for details of how the initial sum of £8m had been spent and quizzed him on how Southend planned to elevate its CQC (Care Quality Commission) rating from ‘needs improvement’ to ‘good’.

I pressed Andrew Pike to explain the ambulance drop-off and turnaround times, which at the moment are too lengthy. I also queried cancer patient waiting times stressing that Southend patients need to be seen quickly to minimise the stress of waiting for treatment.

Andrew assured me that the hospital has a plan and that the directors and staff are working hard to ensure that by June 2024, 90% of ambulances will be waiting outside for no more than 30 minutes, and 55% for no more than 15 minutes.

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