20/01/2015 – Page 2 – Scene Magazine – From the heart of LGBTQ+ Life

Is one of your New Years resolutions to start a new interest?

HAVE you always fancied singing but never had the confidence?

If so, go along to St Andrews Church, Waterloo Street, Hove on January 22 from 8pm, where The Actually Gay Men’s Chorus will be holding an open evening for you to check out if you would enjoy singing with a gay choir.

“Actually CIC” raises money for charities all year round by producing shows and they also perform as guests at a number of public events.

Don’t worry if you can’t read music or haven’t sung since school, just go along along, have a chat, a drink and make some new friends.

For further information, click here:

An official NHS England survey has found that local hospitals are struggling under record pressure as thousands of patients in Brighton and Hove go to A&E after they failed to get an appointment with their family doctor the last time they tried.

IN Brighton and Hove around 2,700 people went to an A&E department when they could not see a local GP.

Across England, nearly one million patients (930,901) turned to A&E when they couldn’t see a GP.

Following the Government’s decision to abolish the 48-hour appointment guarantee after the last election, the survey also found one in four patients waits a week or more for an appointment to see a doctor.

Earlier this month, Ed Miliband set out a five-point plan to rescue struggling A&E departments following a lack of action from the Government. The measures included immediate support for GPs to offer appointments this winter.

Labour has also pledged to invest £100 million in GP surgeries – saved by scrapping the Governments NHS market rules that waste millions on lawyers’ fees and contract tendering – to guarantee appointments within 48 hours or on the same day for those who need it.

Jamie Reed MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, said: “David Cameron has made it harder for people to get a GP appointment and it’s left people turning to overstretched A&E departments.

“Patients are phoning the surgery day after day only to be disappointed. It’s like getting sought-after concert tickets, sitting for hours early morning with the phone on redial. But sadly, too many people are forced to give up and go to A&E.

“David Cameron caused this A&E crisis and his complacency is now a danger to patients. Labour has committed to investing an extra £2.5 billion each year – over and above the Tories – to recruit 8,000 more GPs and 20,000 nurses. We will scrap the Government’s NHS market and invest the savings in helping people to get a GP appointment within 48 hours.”

Nancy Platts, Labours’ Parliamentary Candidate in Brighton Kempton and Peacehaven, said: “We are now starting to get a real sense of what’s causing the crisis in our A&E Departments. Our staff in the NHS work incredibly hard but how can they be expected to cope when around 2,700 people in our area were forced into the local A&E Departments because they couldn’t see a doctor. Cameron and this government are failing thousands of people living here when we need it the most – when we are sick. Every day it seems, we are getting more and more evidence that we simply can’t trust the Tories with our NHS.”