Sometimes there are gems within the papers! The Guardian this week is running a series on the 'New Tories', one bit particularly caught my eye, regarding Health Visitors! apparently the Conservative Party are going to ensure that all new mothers receive regular visits from Health Visitors! My problem with this is not that all new mothers shouldn't receive support, but where exactly are a) these health visitors going to come from and b) where is the money going to come from to enable them to do their jobs effectively?
I have had 5 children, only two of whom survived infancy, Emma had multiple disabilities and was what is termed a neo-natal death, Sam and Eleanor were both victims of SIDS, when my youngest child was born the support of my health visitor was essential to me, but these were not minimal visits, these were daily visits for six months and further to that bi-weekly visits until Russell was 2. The majority of these visits were not funded by the NHS but by the CONI (Care Of Next Infant) Programme (based in Sheffield, details available from FSIDS) and I am very aware of how expensive it was and that if a sympathetic, empathic health visitor had not been available I would probably not have recieved this support.
How the Tories can carry on making these conflicting promises of both Tax Cuts and Improved Services is beyond me, I only have an O-Level in economics, but even I can do the math! Oh sorry, they are now the 'New Tories', where have I heard that before....
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