Last Wednesday, 9th November Littlebit, Granny and I took a trip to The Houses of Parliament. Today’s blog is about that fantastic day.
Bliss are a charity very close to my heart, for babies born too soon, too small, too sick. They not only support families going through the whole NICU / SBCU experience and the aftermath of that experience, but they also campaign to protect the future for these babies too. For more information about Bliss’ work please take a look a their website. There’s plenty you can do to help them too, should you have a few spare moments or pennies.
So, when Bliss asked me, alongside my fellow campaigner, blogger and very good friend MummyBeadzoid to invite my MP, David Tredinnick and attend The Houses of Parliament I jumped at the chance.
The event was to launch Bliss’ SOS report (Save our special care babies, Save our specialist nurses) on frontline cuts to nurses caring for babies born too soon, too small and too sick in England.
Hosted by Chris Heaton-Harris MP for Daventry and the MP of my inspirational friend Catherine Allcott. The event came after Bliss found that one in every three units caring for premature and sick babies in England are making cuts to their nursing workforce through redundancies, freezing vacancies or downgrading nurses. Bliss released a report last year that found that 1,150 extra neonatal nurses were needed to provide care for premature and sick babies. Since then, almost 140 frontline nursing posts have been cut, putting vulnerable babies at risk. Bliss wants all babies to receive the highest level of care delivered by the right number of specialist nursing staff as there is strong evidence to show that increasing the ratio of specialist nurses to babies in intensive care increases their chance of survival and improves their long-term health outcomes.
Surely every baby in England deserves this? When I think how different our story could be if Littlebit hadn’t received the expert care she did it makes me shudder! This report is exactly why I feel so very passionately about improving the care of babies born too soon, too small, too sick.
The whole day, though the content was pretty depressing on the whole, was really enjoyable. Mum and I had a fun journey on the train, where she debated whether to tell the camera man who would be waiting at the other end, that she was the Polish nanny, so as not to be questioned on anything she may not know the answer to. In the end she decided against it :p. Littlebit was brilliantly behaved, as always, and slept for the large majority of the journey.
Our camera man, Mark, was wonderful. Bliss had asked me the previous week if I’d be the case study for the day for filming. This would involve being met off the train and being filmed throughout the entire day and explaining as we went what was going on, why I was there and why I campaign. That sort of stuff.
I don’t know what possessed me to agree to this. I should have known that from that second on it would be all I’d think about, worry over and work myself up on. By the time we got off the train I was a bag of nerves. But, Mark very quickly put me at my ease and we ended up having a laugh throughout the day.
Mark in our taxi having just run through his story board for the day
We had an informative training session in the morning, Granny and Littlebit went for a walk around Westminster and found a coffee shop to have a cuppa in. This was followed by a light lunch and a few photos and then we walked together to Parliament. This was brilliant as it felt like we were walking together as one, against a cause we are all so involved in. Parents, grandparents and preemies all together. It felt great to be part of something like that. It was really empowering.
The lovely Not Even A Bag of Sugar going through the plethora of security checks on the way into Parliament.
The day was really successful for everyone. For me and MummyBeadzoid our MP Mr Tredinnick, who met us at The Houses of Parliament with his assistant Stuart, agreed to everything we asked. He was as supportive as ever and agreed to:
1) write to Andrew Lansley and attempt to schedule a meeting with him to:
a) make him aware of the reported cuts to frontline nursing staff caring for premature and sick babies like Littlebit and Babyzoid
b) ask him to commit to ensuring improving babies’ outcomes – which is dependent on adequate staffing levels – is an NHS priority in the coming year
These can be addressed through a commitment in:
- his mandate to the NHS Commissioning Board
- the Commissioning Outcomes Framework
2) write again to the Chief Executive of Leicestershire NHS Trust and write to the Chief Executive of George Eliot NHS Trust asking them:
a) what initiatives the trust is undertaking to meet the Toolkit standards regarding nursing staffing levels and the proportion of the registered nursing workforce that is qualified in specialty (QIS).
b) not to make any cuts (including redundancies, recruitment freezes and downgrading) to their neonatal nursing workforce
3) supply us with a few dates that he might be available for a unit visit to George Eliot Special Care Baby Unit as he has already visited Leicester Royal Infirmary, a fantastic unit, with MummyBeadzoid.
Me, Littlebit, Granny, David Tredinnick MP, MummyBeadzoid and Babyzoid.
We were really lucky to then have Stuart looking after us for the rest of the afternoon. So we got a tour of the Houses of Parliament and a cup of coffee in Portcullis House cafe. We were really honoured to get this opportunity, so Stuart and Mr Tredinnick if you ever read this. Thank you so much, we felt very well looked after.
I also can’t let this post go by without mentioning how totally honoured (and in awe) I was to meet Kylie from Not Even a Bag of Sugar. Along with MummyBeadzoid she is my blogging inspiration. And she is just as awesome in person as she is on-screen. It was so great to finally meet her, and of course all of the other Bliss campaigners too.
For any local readers, this is how these cuts are affecting us locally:
- Bosworth is in the Trent and Central Newborn Network. 88% of the units in this network who responded to Bliss’ survey do NOT employ enough specialist nurses to meet a Toolkit standard, which states that 70% of their workforce should have a specialist qualification in neonatal care.
- Leicester General, specifically, does not employ enough specialist nurses to meet a Toolkit standard.
If you want to help, please use the Bliss action form to write to your MP too. The more MP’s bring this to the government’s attention the more chance of success we have. We have to save babies lives, as ultimately a decrease in staff will result in a decrease in the numbers of babies who make it.
Oh bless! Thank you for my honorary mentions.
It truly was a fabulous day. Whenever I feel sad about our experience I think of all the lovely mummies and amazing babies I have met, and the lovely friends I now have and think how lucky and blessed I am to have had that experience, and my lovely little boy of course.
It was an awesome, but tiring, day, and I am looking forward to next year already.