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Seven day GP access for Ealing Patients

I thought this was worth publicising.  The whole question of whether or not Ealing Hospital’s A&E dept remains is highly charged.  My own experience of Ealing Hospital A&E earlier this year was excellent but it makes sense to try to encourage people to use a GP service for straightforward problems and take pressure off A&E.


Seven day GP access for Ealing patients

Ealing residents are now able to access GP services 7 days a week, thanks to a new service launched by NHS Ealing Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

People who feel unwell on Saturdays and Sundays should call NHS 111 for medical help and advice. If the trained 111 adviser thinks they need to see a GP, they will be directed to the nearest open practice.

The GP weekend opening service is an alternative to A&E for people with non-life threatening illnesses or injuries. GP practices are working as local groups to offer this service, with practices taking turns to open at weekends.

Dr Mohini Parmar, chair at Ealing CCG said: “We have introduced this service as part of our drive to encourage people to use the correct service for their need.

“We know that many patients attend A&E when their GP practice is closed, even if they don’t have a life-threatening illness.

“We want to encourage patients to be seen in primary care for non-life threatening illnesses, so hospital services can prioritise those who are seriously sick or injured.

“We hope that if people feel they need to see a GP over the weekend they will call 111 in the first instance and go to one of the local GP practices, rather than going to A&E with an illness or injury that can be treated by a GP or pharmacist.”

The new service is part of Ealing CCG’s out of hospital strategy, which aims to bring care closer to home and into a local, more familiar environment for the benefit of the patients.

Using this service will not affect your registration at your own GP practice.  If you are not registered with a GP, you can still call 111 and they will help you access the right service for your needs.

Calls to 111 are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and are free from landline and mobile phones.

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The story of Hanwell’s Jim Marshall ‘the father of loud’ BBC4 Friday 28th Nov 10pm

Photo of Jimi Hendrix from Marshall Amplifiers website

British rock music owes much to Jim Marshall and his amplifier shop in Hanwell.  Dubbed ‘the father of loud’ he came up with an amplifier that combined volume and distortion.  Marshall amplifiers were used by all manner of 60s rock guitarists  from Pete Townsend, Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page to Ritchie Blackmore, Eric Clapton and many, many more. Make a date to  watch Jim Marshall’s story  ‘Play it Loud – The Story of The Marshall Amp’on BBC4 this Friday at 10pm.  Have a look at Marshall’s website for more about their history.

The hugely successful Hanwell Hootie is now an annual celebration of Hanwell’s proud contribution to British rock music and it’s sponsored by Marshall Amplifiers.

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Council has to slash its expenditure

The need to make hefty cuts in Council expendture has been flagged up for some time.  The Council needs to save £96 million by April 2019 as a result of reduced central government funding.  This will affect every single one of us from fortnightly waste collections and reduced road gritting to possibly closing the Solace mental health drop-in centre in West Ealing and 400 redundancies amongst Council staff.

We’ll come back to this in more detail but for now the Ealing Today website has a useful summary of some of the cuts that may be made.

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Performance poetry at OPEN Ealing – Saturday 22nd Nov

Zena Edwards returns to OPEN

Performance poet Zena Edwards returns to OPEN Ealing this coming Saturday (22nd November) to present another beguiling evening of words, movement and music.

Hailing from Tottenham in north London, Zena delves into her Afro-Caribbean heritage to find inspiration for her poems and stories. And she enhances them in performance with traditional African intruments, such as the kalimba and the kora, plus backing musicians.

It’s a powerful, dynamic and entrancing combination. Zena made a big impression on OPEN audiences a couple of years back with her monologue The Three Furies, which reached into Greek mythology to provide a focus for women’s anger in the 12st century. She also performed parts of that show at London’s Royal Festival Hall where she shared a stage with South African trumpeter Hugh Masakela.

She was recently Resident Poet at the Poetry Cafe in Covent Garden, and shortlisted for the first Arts Foundation Award for Performance Poetry. .

Read what others have said:
“Effortlessly melds hip-hop grooves with a worldly Afro-centric wisdom” – Time Out.
“A poet of consummate skill, whose career as an artist is going from strength to strength” – The Guardian.

Here’s just one video example of her work:

This will be the second of a series of appearances by Zena at OPEN, which form part of the autumn season of Performance Saturdays.

Date: Saturday 22nd November 2014
Time: 7.30-10pm
Where: Green Man Lane cafe, Singapore Road, West Ealing W13 0EP
Admission: £10 / concessions £8 / Green Man Lane estate residents £5, includes free glass of wine. Caribbean/Mauritian food available on the night from Coco Labelle.

Follow @Openealing on Twitter, OPEN (West Ealing Arts) on Facebook.
www.openealing.com

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Help create a new future for Ealing – Sunday 16th Nov

‘Re-imagining Ealing’s Future’: Sunday 16th November 7.30pm
Ealing Transition invites you to a participatory Open Space event which will explore the future we would like to create together for ourselves in Ealing. The emphasis is on the practical and the possible, rather than on the things we can’t easily influence, like macro-economic policy.
We will start by showing a short (15 min) TED talk by Nic Marks, which proposes a future based on human happiness, wellbeing and sustainable resource use rather than on productivity or Gross National Product. We will then create an Open Space in which your ideas and contributions can be explored.
If you have ideas about doing something in your local community which could make a positive difference and strengthen our connection to each other, and believe in the power of ‘just doing stuff’ please come and contribute.
The event starts at 7.30pm and takes place in the Polygon, St Mary’s Church, St Mary’s Road Ealing W5 5RH. Entry is free however as usual we will ask for a small donation to help us cover costs. It should be a lively event!

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Help transform a little piece of West Ealing

Radbourne Walk

A view along Radbourne Walk

As an allotment holder on the Northfields site I have an interest in this.  The Northfields allotments are now self-managed – by the Ealing Dean Allotment Society (EDAS)  – and it needs support to get a grant to make a little hidden gem of green space called Radbourne Walk even better!  Radbourne Walk is the name now given to the footpath that runs along the back of the allotments parallel to Northfield Ave. If you’ve walked down it in the past 12 months or so I hope you’ll have noticed  some changes with weeds cleared, poppies and other wildflowers giving a splash of colour in spring and summer.  This work was all done by volunteers and organised by EDAS. It now wants to make Radbourne Walk even better by putting in a new surface to replace the current rutted, muddy one and installing low-level solar lighting. They also want to plant new trees and fill in the gaps on the hedge with native species such as hawthorn, buckthorn, spindle, hazel and elder plus dogwood, dog rose and more which are ideal for wildlife.

EDAS wants to apply for a grant from the Council’s share of the Capital Clean Up Fund. Your help is needed for them to have a chance of success getting a grant. All you need to do is visit their website and leave a mesage of support. The more support they get the more likely they are to get a grant. Here’s just one message of support so far:

‘Many families use this as their ‘country walk’ at the weekends. I think this work would definitely raise the standard of this forgotten footpath, for everyone’

You can find out much more about Radbourne Walk here.

Thank you for your support.

 

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Grab a bargain and meet your neighbours at the Northfields Jumble Trail this Saturday

Great community idea from Francesca Bussey:

‘The Northfields Jumble Trail now has 56 stalls! Amazing! You still have 5 days to register and get rid of all that jumble you’ve been meaning to clear out, or check out the stall’s descriptions and see what bargains you’re going to pick up. It’s on this Saturday 1st November 10am – 3pm, the weather forecast is 16 degrees and dry and I think it just might be great.’

Map of where the stalls are is here

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Free diabetes health check next Tuesday at Lido Centre in West Ealing

Free Diabetes Health Check
On Tuesday 21st October at Lido Centre
Mattock Lane, West Ealing, W13 9LA
10am-5pm

We have a team of friendly staff and volunteers who will be happy to support you and meet your individual needs. This is a free service
delivered by Silver Star diabetes and is open to the community.

Are you at risk of diabetes?
Diabetes is a long-term condition that causes a person’s blood sugar level to become too high. In the UK, about 90% of all adults with diabetes have type 2 diabetes.

Why get tested?
Diabetes is a common life-long health condition. There are 3.2 million people diagnosed with diabetes in the UK and an estimated 630,000 people who have the condition, but don’t know it.
For More information on Diabetes visit: www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/What-is-diabetes/
Or Lido future Health Events www.lidocentre.org.uk/publichealth T: 020 8280 2222

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St John’s Primary School gets ‘Good’ rating from Ofsted

I remember being told that for an area to thrive it needs good schools.  A few weeks ago I drove past St John’s Primary School in Felix Road and a banner caught my eye.  The banner proudly declared the school had a ‘good’ rating from its recent Ofsted report. So, I thought I’d ask the school about it and here is their reply:

‘Staff and pupils at St John’s Primary are celebrating a very positive report by Ofsted following an Inspection on the 1st and 2nd of July 2014. The school was inspected under Ofsted’s more rigorous framework for inspections during the two days, where the inspectors observed lessons, interviewed staff, governors, children and parents. The school secured a judgement of “Good” in all four categories including achievement, teaching and learning, leadership and management and behaviour and safety. “We are proud our Ofsted Report which recognises sustained improvements and has judged it to be good in all areas.” said Head Teacher, Marilyn Borlase.’
Highlights in the report include the comments that:
‘Behaviour is good and this is greatly valued by the pupils and their parents. Pupils say that they always feel safe in school’

‘Teaching is good. Teachers use information about pupils’ progress to plan work which challenges them well’

‘The school is a happy and lively community’

‘Teachers manage their classes well and very good use is made of additional adults to help all pupils do their best work’

Ofsted 2014

Congratulations to Marilyn Borlase, all her teachers and team at St John’s.

In case you want to check on the Ofsted rating for any other local school you can start here and follow the links to the particular school you want.

Out of interest I checked other local primary schools and all had ‘good’ ratings from their last Ofsted report  – Drayton Green, Fielding and Oaklands. Also,  Elthorne Park High School, on the back of its recent GCSE results, is the most improved high school in Ealing over the past two years. Congratulations to them too.