http://www.hounslowlibdems.org.uk/newsarchive.php Recent News Stories from Hounslow Liberal Democrats en-GB Hounslow Liberal Democrats http://www.hounslowlibdems.org.uk/ Prater Raines Ltd http://www.praterraines.co.uk/ (c) 2010 Hounslow Liberal Democrats 2010-02-09T07:29+00:00 United Kingdom http://www.hounslowlibdems.org.uk/news/000373/time_for_nhs_hounslow_chief_exec_to_engage_with_isleworth__brentford_councillors.html Cllr Andrew Dakers, Leader of Hounslow Liberal Democrats, today raised his concerns in public at the Chief Exec of NHS Hounslow, Nick Relph's, lack of engagement with councillors in Isleworth & Brentford - one of the fastest growing parts of Hounslow Borough. Mr Relph was invited this Autumn by local area committee chair Cllr Shirley Fisher to speak to local councillors on the trust's current development plans, but has to date not made himself available. Mr Relph was recently revealed by the Taxpayers Alliance as one of the highest earners in the public sector with a salary of £202,500 per annum. UPDATE: The Chair of NHS Hounslow has agreed to speak to the local area committee in March, although the Mr Relph is still unavailable to attend. 2009-12-22T00:00+00:00 http://www.hounslowlibdems.org.uk/news/000208/west_middlesex_hospital_one_of_most_vulnerable_in_lib_dem_survey.html A national survey by Liberal Democrats of NHS Trusts shows that the West Middlesex is one of the 16 most vulnerable hospital trusts in the country to loss of services and cut backs. Despite having new buildings and long term modernisation plans the Hospital has a history of financial difficulties, as have some local Primary Care Trusts - notably Hounslow - but the real concern is that the Hospital has very high "reference costs" (i.e. low efficiency). This makes it very vulnerable under the new "payment by results" system when it will face competition from Independent Sector Treatment Centres. 2006-07-25T00:00+01:00 http://www.hounslowlibdems.org.uk/news/000195/dakers_calls_for_delay_to_end_of_bics_counselling_service_contract.html In a letter to local healthcare and community leaders Cllr Andrew Dakers, Leader of Hounslow Liberal Democrats, has today once against spoken out on the threatened closure of Hounslow's highly respected BICS counselling service. For the past twelve years BICS has provided Hounslow's general counselling service to GPs. Their contract with the PCT was lost after a re-tendering exercise shrouded in mystery. Dakers has described Hounslow PCT's limited public explanation of the tendering process and selection criteria as inadequate and urged them to be transparent about how the change was made. He has also said that no further steps should be taken to dismantle the BICS service until independent assessments have been completed into the probibity of the retendering process. 2006-06-25T23:27+01:00 http://www.hounslowlibdems.org.uk/news/000179/new_figures_show_continued_plight_of_hounslow_nhs_dentistry.html In the week that controversial new NHS dental contracts come into force across England and Wales, the Liberal Democrats have published figures showing that the number of people in Hounslow who are registered with an NHS dentist has already fallen by 15,958 since Labour came to power. 2006-04-02T23:18+01:00 http://www.hounslowlibdems.org.uk/news/000181/change_of_hounslow_counselling_services_must_be_explained.html Andrew Dakers (Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson for Brentford & Isleworth) today backed local GPs calls for questions to be answered on changes to counselling services in Hounslow. In a letter to the Chief Executives of West London Mental Health Trust and Hounslow PCT Andrew asked why GPs were left in the dark and a highly regarded service not given independent support in bidding for a new contract. 2006-04-01T00:00+01:00 http://www.hounslowlibdems.org.uk/news/000013/dakers_goes_for_sexual_health_checkup_on_world_aids_day.html In the UK Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) are on the increase at an alarming rate. 53,000 adults are now living with the HIV virus. More than a quarter - 27% - do not know they have the infection, which could be as many as 14,300 people. Chlamydia rose by 9% last year, and syphilis increased by 28%. 2004-12-03T00:00+00:00