Carers, Hospices, Dentists and GP

Welcome to my Monday Mail. 

As your Liberal Democrat MP for Mid Sussex, I write a short email each Monday sharing what I have been doing and thinking about in the past week.

Carers, Hospices, Dentists and GPs

Building on my comments in last week’s email about the impact of increases to Employers’ National Insurance Contributions (NICs), this week I continued to speak to those impacted in the sector, and press ministers to think again. 

Care - I was the guest speaker at a meeting of members of the National Care Forum, who told me that whilst they had anticipated the rise in the minimum wage, they hadn’t planned for NICs increases as radical as those announced in the budget. 

Hospices - The children’s hospice charity Together for Short Lives came to Parliament this week, and I joined their roundtable discussion. Like the care sector, they struggle with inadequate and uncertain funding settlements from the state. NICS rises will add to their precarious position. Hospices need urgent clarity on whether this year’s settlement will cover the increased costs arising from the NICs increases. 

NHS dentists - In a debate on NHS dentists, I pressed Health and Social Care Minister Stephen Kinnock on the need to properly fund NHS Dentists and push the Treasury to rethink. 

GPs - It is estimated that the costs of the NICS increases for GPs here in West Sussex is equivalent to 26,786 appointments. In an Urgent Question on Thursday, I asked Karin Smyth the Minister for Secondary Care to stop this GP Penalty. My comments were written up in The Independent.

Around Mid Sussex

It’s also been a busy week in Mid Sussex. I met the Haywards Heath Scouts and Anna from Bentswood Hub to look at their plans to build a new Scout Hut at Barn Green on Friday lunchtime. 

The 18th - 24th November is UK Parliament Week which aims to spread the word about what Parliament is and what it does. I kicked off Parliament Week early by spending Friday evening with the 3rd Burgess Hill Brownies. It even prompted me to dig out some old photos of me as a Brownie in the 1980s.

On Saturday I visited the Triangle where the Burgess Hill District Lions and PCaSO conducted blood tests for an incredible 1,100 men in order to screen for prostate cancer. 

Times Radio Panel

On Sunday evening at 5pm I was a panellist on the Weekend Drive political panel with Carole Walker where we discussed Ukraine, Labour proposals to stop illegal boat crossings, farming and Tim Shipman’s book about Sunak’s premiership. You can listen here.

Getting in touch

My parliamentary email address is: alison.bennett.mp@parliament.uk. If you need my help, please get in touch and I will do my best to help. I am so pleased that some of my team have now started working for me, but whilst we work through the queue of letters and emails I am sorry that response times are still not as quick as I want them to be. 

Best wishes,
Alison

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