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20 Most Recent Press Articles
Can we improve doctors' out of hours service?
Written by David Heath MP and published in Somerset Standard on Fri 19th Feb 2010
Somerset Primary Care Trust is to be congratulated on agreeing to a meeting with local people about the out-of-hours doctors' service. I raised the issue in parliament last week, pointing out that not a single out-of-hours doctor is based in my constituency, which extends over nine hundred square miles. Of course, there is a mobile unit based in Shepton Mallet, but many are not reassured by the fact that one car covers the whole of Mendip.
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Can we improve doctors' out of hours service?
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Fri 19th Feb 2010
I had a miserable cold last week. I say that, not because I want or expect sympathy, but because when we are ill, we all want to ensure that we get the treatment we need, and sometimes that need doesn't fall conveniently into office hours. My cold was just that - a cold, and not something I'd dream of troubling a doctor with. If a toddler was running a high temperature, though, or someone with multiple health problems became sick, then you might very well want advice.
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Read "Can we improve doctors' out of hours service?" in full (944 words).
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Schools dominated events this week.
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Thu 4th Feb 2010
I've had a very schools-centred week. Last Friday I went along to Huish Episcopi school, along with Paddy Ashdown, to meet fifth form students. Brilliant questions, and Paddy was, I thought, on top form, especially when asked about his multiple former lives as soldier, spy, diplomat, youth leader, MP and, latterly, King of Bosnia! I hope the students felt that they got as much out of it as they should have done. It was also good to see the new buildings taking shape, and I'm glad we managed to persuade the Learning and Skills Council before they went into a state of utter shambles, which has meant getting any commitment over the last year has been a herculean task.
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Read "Schools dominated events this week." in full (947 words).
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School children ask pertinent questions!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Somerset Standard on Thu 4th Feb 2010
A group from Selwood School visited the Houses of Parliament this week and asked me questions about life as an MP and areas of policy, questions which wouldn't have disgraced an adult audience.
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Read "School children ask pertinent questions!" in full (235 words).
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A question of tone - and one of over-simplification
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Fri 22nd Jan 2010
Events in Haiti are absolutely horrific. It is hard to imagine a country less capable of withstanding such a natural catastrophe. They had nothing before the earthquake, and they certainly have nothing now. All those of us who are lucky enough to live in richer, more comfortable and safer places can do is to look on in horror and lend our financial support. And hope that, after the horrors, a better society emerges.
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Read "A question of tone - and one of over-simplification" in full (929 words).
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Crime in the country DOES count!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Somerset Standard on Fri 22nd Jan 2010
Despite the bad weather a couple of weeks, there was a good turnout for a meeting with local farmers I had in Beckington village hall. They were concerned about the levels of crime they are experiencing on their farms, and they wanted to impress on me, and on the local police, that it wasn't something they were prepared to simply put up with.
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Read "Crime in the country DOES count!" in full (243 words).
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Village shops, dementia care and electricity pylons - a mixed bag!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Fri 4th Dec 2009
Just over a year ago I put in an appearance as an auctioneer at a fund raising event in Kingsbury Episcopi. I remember writing about it at the time, firstly because it was great fun, but secondly because the event was so well supported by the village - it seemed almost the entire community was there. The event was raising funds to do something which a lot of villages would like to have the drive and gumption to do, to try and bring back a functioning village shop.
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Read "Village shops, dementia care and electricity pylons - a mixed bag!" in full (958 words).
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Good news for the NHS in Frome!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Somerset Standard on Fri 27th Nov 2009
I'm paying another visit to the new Frome Community Hospital on Thursday, in the company of my colleague and party leader Nick Clegg. Frankly, I'm showing off the results of what so many people in Frome and hereabouts campaigned so hard for over many years, but I'm also hoping that it will serve as a model for hospital provision elsewhere.
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Read "Good news for the NHS in Frome!" in full (245 words).
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Thoughts on rural health care
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Fri 27th Nov 2009
I'm paying another visit to the new community hospital in Frome on Thursday, in the company of my colleague and party leader Nick Clegg, and I'm very pleased to hear that two of the outstanding issues relating to the hospital may now be on the way to being solved. Firstly, the hours during which treatment can be given for minor injuries is going to be extended; this was an annoyance to people who found that they had to trek off to Bath to deal with some misfortune which couldn't be dealt with at the brand new hospital in the evening. Secondly, the local GPs practice are publishing plans for a new surgery next to the hospital, which is what we hoped for in the first place but which was cut out for budgetary reasons.
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Read "Thoughts on rural health care" in full (937 words).
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The House - and the horse.
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Fri 20th Nov 2009
The Queen's speech marks the official opening of the parliamentary session,amid all the pomp and ceremony that several hundred years of tradition can muster. Although I am sure that Her Majesty on occasions winces at the stuff she is expected to read out (written, of course, by the government of the day), nevertheless the whole occasion has a certain charm and a great deal of circumstance. And the symbolic shutting of the door of the House of Commons in the face of Black Rod, representing the refusal of the elected house to accept the whim of any unconstitutional monarch, still has resonance.
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Read "The House - and the horse." in full (959 words).
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What a waste of time!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Somerset Standard on Fri 20th Nov 2009
The Queen's speech this week marks the official opening of the parliamentary session and sets out the government's legislative programme. But one thing we can be absolutely sure of is there will be a general election within the next six months, which means that few if any of the measures contained in the speech will ever become law. So what on earth is the point of it? Aren't we just wasting our time?
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Read "What a waste of time!" in full (243 words).
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We need clarity on our vision for Afghanistan.
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Fri 13th Nov 2009
I spotted the first on the lapel of a government minister in the second week of October this year. Within a week every minister and most government ministers, not to mention every reporter and newsreader on the television, was sporting a poppy. I'm afraid I stick to what I have always considered the proper period for the wearing of Remembrance Day poppies, which starts on 1st November and ends the day after the 11th. And I refuse to accept that wearing a poppy earlier, or for that matter wearing a larger poppy, mean that you "care even more".
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Read "We need clarity on our vision for Afghanistan." in full (949 words).
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Clarity is needed in Afghanistan
Written by David Heath MP and published in Somerset Standard on Fri 13th Nov 2009
As usual, I attended Remembrance Day parades and services in Bruton, Wincanton and Frome this year. It was noticeable to me that, despite the death of the last survivors of the First World War and the passing on of many who fought in the Second, participation has grown rather than dwindled, with many young people perhaps recognising the sacrifice made by their own generation in Iraq or Afghanistan.
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Read "Clarity is needed in Afghanistan" in full (251 words).
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Of Parishes and Presidents.
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Fri 6th Nov 2009
Pull hard, they said. You need to pull it hard. So I did. I pulled the bell-rope at the cemetery chapel in Castle Cary for all I was worth, expecting it to toll the bell and formally mark the opening of the restored building. The bell rang, once, twice, three times, and then the rope snapped, and I was left rather sheepishly holding a length of bell-rope no longer attached to a bell. As I said at the time, the chapel was by now well and truly open, but slightly broken! Despite the mishap with the bell, the friends of the chapel, the town council, and a host of donors and helpers have made a really good job of restoring the building back to its Victorian best, although now with the thoroughly modern addition of a wind generator and photo-voltaic panels to make it energy self-sufficient. A brilliant job done, and congratulations to all concerned.
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Read "Of Parishes and Presidents." in full (902 words).
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Public meetings are back!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Somerset Standard on Fri 6th Nov 2009
I did something that is considered unusual, even old-fashioned, a week ago. I spoke to a public meeting, in Frome, about current political issues. Not a meeting of the party faithful. Not an event called by a pressure group of one kind or another. Just a meeting open to the public where local people could hear what I have to say, ask questions, and, as importantly, I could listen.
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Read "Public meetings are back!" in full (240 words).
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How grand is a Grand Committee?
Written by David Heath MP and published in Somerset Standard on Fri 11th Sep 2009
"Grand Committee" has a faintly Ruritanian ring. It's a committee made up of all the MPs elected from a particular region or nation. Up until now, we've had one for Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland, but never for parts of England. Last week we had the first one for the south west, in Exeter.
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Read "How grand is a Grand Committee?" in full (242 words).
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Ruritanian Committees and Chinese Lanterns
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Fri 11th Sep 2009
There is something faintly Ruritanian about a body known as a "Grand Committee". In the case of the South West Regional Grand Committee, which met in Exeter on Thursday of last week, the actual proceedings didn't quite live up to the great expectations.
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Read "Ruritanian Committees and Chinese Lanterns" in full (959 words).
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It's not easy being young!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Thu 27th Aug 2009
At the risk of sounding smug, we had some good news last week. My son Tom went into Frome College last Thursday to get his A level results in good heart, as he had already logged in to the University Entrance website at eight o'clock in the morning to find out that he had his university place, so must have got the necessary grades. In fact he did better than he expected, so congratulations and celebrations were in order.
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Read "It's not easy being young!" in full (915 words).
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Three strikes -but they're still in!
Written by David Heath MP and published in Western Gazette on Fri 3rd Jul 2009
I engineered a defeat for the government last Thursday. Okay, so it wasn't a major, catastrophic, vote-of-confidence-inducing defeat. In fact, it was hardly mentioned in the press at all, except for possibly in the East Midlands (which I shall explain in a moment), but it was a defeat nevertheless. And although the whips were spitting blood and pouring expletives on their hapless charges, it was the easiest thing in the world to have avoided. All it would have taken was a phone call.
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Read "Three strikes -but they're still in!" in full (926 words).
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