An alarming number of people across Ealing need emergency dental treatment in hospital because of a lack of access to NHS dentists, it was revealed this week. These urgent admissions are a direct result of patients not having an NHS dentist who is normally able to treat them in an emergency.

• New figures extracted by the Conservatives show that across the country, 22,000 people had to be admitted to hospital for emergency dental treatment last year. These emergency hospital admissions are costing the NHS £13 million a year.
• In Ealing PCT, 83 people received emergency dental treatment in hospitals, costing the local NHS an estimated £49,435. Most of this has to be borne by already over-stretched A&E departments.
• This comes as the latest NHS figures show that 41% of the population across Ealing PCT area have not been seen by an NHS dentist in the last two years.

These figures underline once again the Labour Government’s appalling failure on NHS dentistry. 41% of people across Ealing have been unable to see an NHS dentist. It comes as no surprise that 83 people have been forced to hospital last year for emergency dental care – straining our over-stretched A&E departments still further.

We need to cut out Labour’s waste and bureaucracy in NHS dentistry and restore access to an NHS dentist to the million who have lost one under this Government.

Conservatives have announced a series of reforms to NHS dentistry which will improve NHS care. The comprehensive plan proposes:

• Creating new incentives for dentists to spend more time on preventative dental care, improving oral health and reducing long-term costs.
• Restoring access to an NHS dentist for the one million patients who have lost it under Labour, by removing costly bureaucracy and cutting out waste.
• Using money currently spent on carrying out unnecessary treatments to reintroduce dental screening for children in schools.
• Ensuring that taxpayer-trained dentists work for the NHS for at least five years.

Gurcharan

The immediate priorities for the Conservative administration in Ealing are:

• Cleaner streets
• Safer Communities
• Value for money

This is what the cabinet, with the help of the local community, decided for the Ealing Southall constituency.

The cabinet allocated £576,500 for 135 alley–gating schemes of which 63 schemes belong to Ealing Southall. Most of these alleys are at the back of houses, are badly lit and attract antisocial elements causing many burglaries.

The administration took residents concerns into account and has embarked upon a gating programme. The work is to be completed over the next two years. With these measures among others, Ealing’s Conservative administration will be on the hit list of antisocial elements

Details of the recommended ‘costs per road’ as part of the scheme are provided below.

Congratulations to all hard working residents for making such an effort to make their application for alley-gating.

Gurcharan

The political map of England turned blue in the early hours of Friday as results continued to pour in and the Conservative continued with their winning march of remaining Labour strongholds. It was disaster of an unimaginable scale for Labour, the Labour share of votes shrunk to mere 23% with Labour 159 councillors, Conservatives 1330 and Liberal Democrats 439. The BNP won their first seat in North East. In a result related reshuffle of the cabinet, a number of ministers resigned, some took voluntary retirement and some retired to spend more time with their families. While Tories were celebrating, the Labour was licking their wounds. The weakness of Gordon Brown was apparent from the fact that he was not even able to place his favourites where he wanted. If these results are repeated nationwide, the Conservative under David Cameron will form the next Government with thumping majority.

On European front, the situation for Labour was no rosier and by Monday morning the story of Labour meltdown was not as significant as that of BNP winning two European Parliament seats. They now have a stage at the heart of the European Parliament to spread venom against minorities. It is interesting to note UKIP have come second beating Labour into third place. The success of BNP in Labour strongholds suggests that while Labour’s core support stayed with it, most of its soft support has deserted it to the BNP. Can it be concluded that Labour harbour racist votes and as and when they get an opportunity they (BNP voters) leave Labour in droves.

From local prospective, in Ealing, the swing against Labour is 6.4% and in favour of Conservatives 2.7%.

The national final position of parties can be viewed here.

Gurcharan

The European elections for the whole of the UK and elections for unitary authorities (outside London) took place yesterday with polls closed at 10pm.

We, in Southall, were able to man most of the polling booths and the Labour party volunteers , with the exception of couple of places were no where to be seen.

After the close of polling, most Conservative Party volunteers came to my campaign office for a chat and to share their experiences. Suddenly, I received a text informing me that James Purnell had resigned from cabinet. My immediate thoughts were that this is reminiscant of rats jumping out of the sinking ship. After refreshments, we all left for our respective residences and I was glued to the TV -changing news channels as frequently as I felt like. It appeared as though a civil war had broken out within the Labour Party and everyone had begun jockeying for positions. The prime motive seems to be that how to cling on to power rather than giving people chance and seek fresh mandate.

This was my first election after leaving the Labour party and must say that I had a very pleasant experience.

The unitary authority results will be out by this afternoon and EU results by Sunday afternoon. I have already been contacted by some whose case work which I had passed on to officers of the London Borough of Ealing for response and I am off to make contact with officers for outcome.

The stroke unit services consultation closed on 8th May 2009. It was proposed by the Healthcare for London that stroke unit at Ealing Hospital be closed and stroke patients residing in the London Borough of Ealing, in the first instance, be taken either to Northwick Park or Charing Cross Hospital where they will be treated for first 72 hours to then be shifted either to West Middlesex, Northwick Park or Hillingdon Hospital.

I feel very strongly that there is an acute risk associated with this proposal and therefore, oppose it. As you will have noticed via my Twitter updates and previous blog entries, I launched an online as well as paper petition to voice the concerns of the public in this matter. In total 1862 people from all areas of the community have signed. I along with my three Conservative Party councillors (Jagdish Sharma, Manjit Singh and Jarnail Singh Jandu) delivered this petition at 2.18pm on Friday.

We now await the final decision from Healthcare for London. I sincerely hope that while arriving at their decision, they will take into account concerns of the 1862 people who signed the petition.

My promise to residents of Ealing Southall is that as long as there is a possibility of retaining stroke services at Ealing, I will continue to fight.

Finally, I thank all those who helped me in this exercise - in particular, the management committee of Sri Guru Singh Sabha (Sikh place of worship), Vishwa Hindu Mandir and Jamia Milia mosque (Montague Road), all of Southall, Parjapati temple at Featherstone Road, Southall, Southall Day Centre , 9 GPs having surgeries in Southall, one GP of Hanwell and two pharmacists of Southall. My thanks also go to Conservative councillors on Ealing for their advice and help and in particular to Cllr. Mark Reen, cabinet member for Housing and Adult Social Services.

Gurcharan