It looks as though my ‘Making Britain Breakfast Again’ initiative to bring the different sides of the Brexit back together after the bruising last couple of years we have had may become redundant. Incredibly Brexit has almost fallen out of circulation as Coronavirus is all encompassing. Everyone is united in rallying round and showing a fantastic sense of community through all the volunteering schemes popping up across the country and East Worthing & Shoreham is of course no exception.
Now more than 750,000 people have come forward as an NHS volunteer; we have Coronavirus volunteer groups covering the whole constituency and Tina Favier at Adur/Worthing Councils is coordinating and maximising the effort through the neighbourhood teams. If you would like to help, or need help, then all the details ae on my website. It is fantastic also to see that no fewer than 20,000 doctors and nurses who have left the NHS have reported for duty as well. There has been much talk of a scheme to recognise and reward the outstanding effort of NHS staff during the crisis once we are through it and I would absolutely support a flat bonus to all staff. However, a nurse mentioned to me this week that she had just received her £120 annual bill for her nurse registration to the RCN. Wouldn’t it be good to waive that for just this year?
I say everyone has rallied round. The one exception of course is the member of the public who reported Shopital to Environmental Health for handing out donated ready meals, for free, by volunteers, to NHS staff coming off shift at Worthing Hospital. Extraordinary. However, I am glad to say we have resolved that now and normal service has been resumed and many thanks to Focus of Shoreham whose cook is providing the meals rather than twiddling his thumbs in an empty dining room. I am aware that many other firms have also kindly redeployed their resources similarly. I have however been obliged to register Shopital as a food business despite the fact it is not a commercial venture and relies on volunteers. Alas there was not a box on the required form which gave an option to describe the business as ‘Volunteer pop-up to supply food to essential NHS staff in emergency conditions!’
Please don’t forget the many other people in the public service who are also exposing themselves to risks to carry on with their essential work. They deserve our thanks too. After several queries I was glad to hear for example that the Council has now issued our waste disposal staff with masks, gloves, hand sanitiser and special disinfecting ‘bombs’ in the cabs given that social distancing can be something of a challenge in their line of work.
Stay safe everyone and continue to look for information on a wide range of relevant issues on the Coronavirus section of my website www.timloughton.com
