On Tuesday the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the House of Commons and the UK from Kyiv and what was noticeable to me was that, despite the intense pressure on him and horrific situation he and his people are in, President Volodymyr spoke with dignity and compassion. He did not make specific demands but certainly left us all with a profound understanding that time is very short and we must find every opportunity to identify and accelerate effective measures and action to drive Putin’s forces out of Ukraine.
Every time conflict erupts we see the immediate impact on civilians and the invasion of Ukraine has shown no exception. The loss of innocent lives and the rapid rise of refugees seeking sanctuary is deeply disturbing.
The humanitarian crisis escalates every day and, if the humanitarian routes for escape are safe to use, we will see the numbers of refugees vastly increase in a very short period of time. We all feel frustrated at the way the Home Office operates. You can get the impression that examples such as Afghanistan in the summer and Ukraine today come as a complete surprise.
Having said this the scale of UK humanitarian support along the borders exceeds that of any other nation and, whilst we want refugees out of the cold and given the food, medical treatment and any other assistance required, it takes time to identify suitable accommodation and support packages and I, for one, want to make sure we do this properly for the refugees’ sake.
Naturally, here in Cornwall we want to help and there are several ways we can contribute to the humanitarian effort. Every pound you donate to UNICEF will be matched by the UK Government. There are a number of local opportunities to give items and other forms of aid that will be helpful to refugees, and I suggest looking out for any information from Cornwall Refugee Resettlement Network to get the best advice. The Ukrainian Family Scheme opens a route for refugees to join families here in the UK giving us opportunities to help when they arrive. This is also true in relation in the Ukrainian Sponsorship Humanitarian Visa Offer which is available to refugees without a family connection who can travel to the UK supported by businesses, organisations, and individuals. I listened to a Mayor in Ukraine late last week who was stressing the need to support Ukrainian people to either stay in Ukraine or close by to avoid (as he put it) ‘hollowing out our cities’. Every bit of help we can give to support refugees along the Ukrainian border is vital. If you have trouble finding out how you can get involved in a local effort email my office and I’ll put you in contact!
Whilst it is impossible to completely design out ambulance delays in recovering a patient for hospital admission and we can never promise to end ambulance queues outside RCHT Treliske, we must do an awful lot better. In 2016 Cornwall was experiencing a similar pressure on beds at Treliske and Cornwall’s MPs secured a system-wide review of health and care services commissioned by the then Secretary of State for Local Government Sajid Javid MP. The report found that delays in transfers of care (discharging patients into the community when they no longer had a clinical need) was the main cause of the pressure across the system. Following a meeting with the Chancellor and myself at the time Cornwall Council was awarded an additional £24m to improve adult social care services and improvements were made.
But here we are again and the underlying problem in my view is the way the social care profession has been undermined and undervalued and, to make matters worse, care providers face sustained competition from hospitality and other sectors who can often pay higher wages and offer more social working hours. Late last month Sajid Javid, now as Health and Care Secretary, triggered another deep dive into how the health and care system works in Cornwall sending in a national taskforce to scrutinise the different NHS providers and Cornwall Council and funding is likely to be awarded to address the delayed transfers of care. In our meeting of Cornish MPs and the Health Secretary Sajid Javid last week, the number of people in Cornwall in this situation stood at 151.
This work is intended to give Cornwall access to the best possible methods of practice and care and will include additional finances to address the specific ‘bottlenecks’ as identified. I’m working on a ‘vision for social care’ which seeks to remove the distinction between a domiciliary care work in the community and a healthcare assistant in a hospital or NHS setting. Why? Because experience tells us that whilst being a healthcare assistant is seen as an attractive prospect, a domiciliary care worker is not always seen in the same light. We know why and we need to fix it!
