Bishop’s Castle

Bishop’s Castle Division elects one Councillor.

Candidates:
Division Name Party Survey
Bishop’s Castle KEELEY, Jonny LD (Did not respond)
Bishop’s Castle LUCKHURST, David Richard Grn  
Bishop’s Castle TYLER, Christopher John Con (Did not respond)
1. Will you support sufficient funding to enable all Shropshire’s Public Health programmes to continue, and to allow the development and implementation of new programmes to improve the health of Shropshire people?

Name Party Q1
LUCKHURST, David Richard Grn Yes
Comments and explanations:

Name Party Comment1
LUCKHURST, David Richard Grn Of course. The NHS patient funding settlement is inappropriate to reflect patient population age demography and rural distributions of patient needs.
2. Will you support sufficient funding for health visiting in Shropshire to ensure the full implementation of NHS England’s recommended model: ‘The universal health visitor reviews’ – five mandated reviews?

Name Party Q2
LUCKHURST, David Richard Grn Yes
Comments and explanations: None
3. Will you support Shropshire Council commissioning and subsidising public transport sufficient to enable all patients without their own transport to access health services reliably?

Name Party Q3
LUCKHURST, David Richard Grn Yes
Comments and explanations:

Name Party Comment3
LUCKHURST, David Richard Grn The South Shropshire Green Party candidates campaign and demand for adequate public transport in our election ˜Green Views”.
4. Will you support the funding of Healthwatch at a level sufficient to fully exercise its statutory role, and do you agree that it should be able to determine its own programmes of work independent of any Council veto?

Name Party Q4
LUCKHURST, David Richard Grn Yes
Comments and explanations:

Name Party Comment4
LUCKHURST, David Richard Grn Certainly. Healthwatch, as any body with statutory obligations, must be funded adequately to fulfil those obligations to patients and public . Healthwatch Shropshire has its Board who must operate within the Healthwatch constitution and work independently of any Shropshire Council sanction.
5. Do you agree that the Health and Wellbeing Board should only apply the Better Care Fund on programmes that will improve health and wellbeing, rather than transferring the cost of provision from the NHS to the Council, voluntary organisations, and individual patients?

Name Party Q5
LUCKHURST, David Richard Grn Yes
Comments and explanations:

Name Party Comment5
LUCKHURST, David Richard Grn The H&Wb Board has its responsibility to ensure that the Better Care Fund delivers the best quality of both clinical care and social care through adequately funded, managed and staffed delivery agencies. The Green Party’s insistence is that these must be public not private entities.
6. Will you vote against endorsement of the current Shropshire Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) in which Shropshire Council is a partner?

Name Party Q6
LUCKHURST, David Richard Grn Yes
Comments and explanations:

Name Party Comment6
LUCKHURST, David Richard Grn Version 5 of the STP is an inadequate document with a significant ambiguity, insufficiency of detail and offers more questions than answers. It is more a narrative to fit a service rationing agenda arising from constrained funding.
7. Will you vote against endorsement of future versions of the STP if it does not meet the following red lines: (a) no reduction of provision or access to in-County secondary care, including emergency care; (b) no reduction of hospital beds in either RSH or PRH unless bed occupancy rates have been running at 85% consistently for 12 months; (c) no reduction in acute/secondary care services that are being transferred to the community without high quality evidence based community provision being in place, fully operational, and proven to be successful; (d) no reduction in beds and service provision at our community hospitals; (e) a real increase in community mental health provision; (f) the continued provision of accessible Midwife-Led Maternity Units, in line with national guidance and with no reduction in current services; (g) a real improvement in ambulance provision to ensure NHS England target response times can be met across the County; (h) no increase in the fragmentation or privatisation of services?

Name Party Q7
LUCKHURST, David Richard Grn Yes
Comments and explanations:

Name Party Comment7
LUCKHURST, David Richard Grn 7a. Certainly. We have and will continue to campaign hard for the maintenance and improvement of acute and emergency care. In an emergency, as most know, every second counts.7b. Yes – provided bed occupancy at 85% or less for 12 months rolling. Whenever occupancy later exceeds 85% over any rolling 12 months additional beds must be opened.7c. Absolutely! We understand various attractions to shift the settings for certain acute services from acute/general settings towards community settings but safe proof of outcomes must condition any existing site service contraction.7d. Yes – as 7c. above – not until any alternative clinical and care provisions are proven to be consistent, reliable and robust.7e. Yes. As with any clinical condition provision must be adequate to meet the level of need to the highest quality. Alongside remedial provision must go an honest identity followed by adequate remedy of the contributory causes of many mental ill-health conditions. 7f. Yes. Every citizen has equal right to the same best level of care appropriate for their ill-health condition. Our ambulance service has to be funded, structured and managed to meet the service standard across the whole geography.7g. Resolutely. This is well known and longstanding Green Party policy.
8. If a member of the Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee, or the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, will you ensure that there is full public consultation on any proposed changes to NHS service that might negatively impact any patients, and if such proposals are subsequently agreed by the relevant NHS body, will you vote to refer the proposals to the Secretary of State for Health?

Name Party Q8
LUCKHURST, David Richard Grn Yes
Comments and explanations:

Name Party Comment8
LUCKHURST, David Richard Grn 8. If any changes risk negative impact on patients we will propose that the proposal/s be referred to the Sec. of State for Health and consider other options to counter such change risk materialising.