Co-Chair of LGBT Greens standing for election in Brighton

Good to see my friend Phelim Mc Cafferty, who has done so much on LGBT issues both inside and outside the Green Party standing for election in the forthcoming council elections in Brighton. He is standing for Brunswick and Adelaide ward in May. In a city which has the highest proportion of LGBT voters in the country I am sure that his hard work and radical stance on LGBT rights and equalities issues in general will serve him well. Phelim did a great deal of work on the LGBT manifesto for Brighton and also on the Green Party's general election LGBT manifesto for last year's contest. Together with the other Co-Chair of the LGBTIQ Group, Lesley Hedges, who unfortunately has had to retire from active politics due to ill health, and also myself when I was on the party's Regional Council, he considerably strengthened the LGBT and equalities section of the manifesto, which meant that the Greens had the most progressive policies in this area last year.

I will be going down to Brighton over the next few months to help in his campaign and also trying to galvanise the LGBT and trade union vote in the area behind him. Phelim has also done a great deal of work on trade union issues and like myself is an active member of the Green Party Trade Union Group, as well as being on the National Council of the Coalition of Resistance and a leading member of Green Left. With this government cutting services for all marginalised groups in the community, the SE region of the TUC is about to launch a new group called 'Queers against the Cuts' demonstrating how many LGBT organisations are threatened with closure and how the health cuts will impact on the treatment of HIV. Again, having someone like Phelim as a councillor with really strengthen this campaign and bring the needs of the LGBT community to the fore. He is a person of considerably political integrity and courage who to use a phrase which for me is still powerful "speaks truth unto power."

Response from the London Ambulance Service on medical treatment of people kept in police 'kettles'

The response below is from the London Ambulance Service to the Vice Chair of the LAS Patients Forum. I also asked a question along these lines at the last LAS NHS Trust Board meeting last month.

Dear Malcolm

In such cases any one ill or injured, public or otherwise, would be treated in accordance with normal treatment regimens. We do have a specialist unit who are either pre-deployed if it is a planned event, or can be assembled if it is a spontaneous event. They are specially equipped, (personal protection), and trained to deal with such incidents which can by their very nature, be very volatile. (It is not unknown for LAS staff to come under strong verbal abuse, and occasionally physical threat. (This was seen at Notting Hill a couple of years when missiles were thrown at what were quite obviously LAS & St John members of staff. (A St. John vehicle was also badly damaged)).

If we are made aware that someone is ill or injured in a crowd that is being contained, then staff will make contact with the Police and work out the safest method of extraction. This may mean being escorted into the crowd, or the patient being brought to our staff by Police Medics. Every situation is different and has to be dealt with differently. The staff on the ground will, under the direction of the LAS Command Team, always liaise with the Police, so that they are aware that we have / might have a patient in an area where the public are being contained. These situations are also exercised, (very realistically), by our staff and the Police at the Public Order Range at Gravesend.

If during such an event EOC receive a call from someone within a “contained” area, they will pass details to the “Event Control” if one has been set up, (normally for pre-planned scenarios); or they will pass it to the Command Team on the Ground for deployment of the most suitable response. This really does depend at what stage the incident is at. Containment normally happens after quite a while so a Silver Command Team will have been established and will be on site.



I hope this assists

Regards,

David Whitmore DIMC RCSEd

Senior Clinical Adviser to the Medical Director

London Ambulance Service NHS Trust

220 Waterloo Road

London

SE1 8SD

020 7783 2092 - Direct Line

07899 965712 - Mobile

020 7921 5127 – Fax

E-mail - david.whitmore@lond-amb.nhs.uk

Call for unity from Bob Crow

I will be at the first meeting of the National Council of the Coalition of Resistance on Saturday, together with other members of the Green Party and Green Left. I totally echo the sentiments expressed below by Bob Crow and they represent the views I put forward in my recent interview on COR on Left Project blog. We are facing a cataclysm for public services, the voluntary sector and the benefits system. We must work together to oppose these cuts or perish.



Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I am writing to urge maximum unity in the struggle against the Coalition government’s austerity programme.
Such is the scale of the onslaught against our class that no one should be in any doubt of the need for such unity.
There can be no question of any political party or organisation seeking to assume leadership of this struggle or setting up new national organisations that would create disunity.

Instead all our efforts should be devoted to mobilising all progressive forces and building the biggest and broadest possible movement against the cuts.

I would urge all comrades to take a step back and consider how we can best act in a way which helps achieve these aims.

Yours in unity

Bob Crow

RMT General Secretary

Oldham and Saddleworth By election hustings

The hustings in the Oldham by election with questions on the NHS, cuts etc and a spirited performance by Green Party candidate, Peter Allen. Good luck tomorrow Peter.

Questions to the IPCC and the Met Police over the health impact of kettling

The correspondence below has been sent by the London Ambulance Service Patients Forum to both the IPCC and the Metropolitan Police. At its meeting last month the Forum expressed concern about the treatment of student Alfie Meadows at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, where it was widely reported that police there tried to prevent him being treated – he was subsequently diagnosed with having suffered a brain injury. Also at the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust Board meeting on December 14th, I raised a question about how the LAS dealt with emergency calls coming from within a kettle. The reply was that specially kitted up LAS staff entered the kettle to try and find the patient – also that LAS staff were present in the police control room during the demonstration and that both LAS, St John’s Ambulance and Red Cross were on standby at such demonstrations. However, the Chief Medical Officer of the LAS admitted that there was a real danger of hypothermia occurring within the kettle.

The Forum is meeting tonight at the LAS Headquarters in Waterloo Road, which is a public meeting, at 5.30pm where some of these issues will be discussed.

Street detention and encirclement of protestors

Can you please let me know if you have carried out an investigation into the process of mass detention used by the police called "kettling"? We are particularly keen to know about any investigations into medical emergencies, medical treatment and access for the LAS during these detentions.


Your sincerely

Malcolm Alexander

Vice Chair


Patients' Forum London Ambulance Service


Chair: Joseph Healy, Vice Chairs: Malcolm Alexander, Sister Josephine Udie, Lynn Strother

Secretary: Alison Buick

Malcolm Alexander,

Vice Chair, Patients Forum,

30 Portland Rise,

N4 2PP



Sir Paul Stephenson

Commissioner

Metropolitan Police

January 9th 2011

Dear Sir Paul,


I am writing to you about the increased use by the Metropolitan Police of techniques involving “kettling” people into a confined space where they are detained until such time as they can be released or processed in a controlled manner. The approach appears to gather everyone in its path whether protestor or by-stander. I understand this practice is not currently subject to specific statutory regulation and control, except of course that Article 3 of the Human Rights Act provides that, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. This would appear to limit the sort of force that may be used.

The reason I am writing to you is specifically in relation to the medical needs of people held in a large crowd contained by the police, sometimes for several hours. People may become ill during such detention either due to panic, fear or the occurrence of natural events like strokes and heart attacks. Other people may have sustained an injury in their interaction with the police. In such a situation the civil liberty to call an ambulance and to receive treatment consistent with their clinical needs and civil rights are likely to be hampered possibly leading to death, sustained injury or increased harm as a result of delays in getting attention for a medical emergency.

Can you please answer the following questions?

1) Are you able to show that during planning of your operations that the potential medical needs of the people you detain by “kettling” are considered?

2) Can you provide a copy of your policy for responding to the medical needs of people who have been detained in a “kettling” operation?

3) During the use of this kind of detention what method is used to identify medical problems, especially in the ‘thick of the crowd’ that may arise during the detention?

4) Can I have a copy of any agreements you have with the LAS on their access to people your officers have detained during a “kettling” operation.

5) What provision do you make to allow the LAS access to people who have been detained during a “kettling” operation?

6) What agreement do you have with the LAS to enable them to respond directly to 999 calls from people who have been detained by your offices in a “kettling” operation?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Malcolm Alexander

Vice Chair

London Ambulance Service Patients Forum meeting next Monday

With the London Ambulance Service now heading at full speed towards Foundation Trust status this is a very important meeting where we will hear details of what is being planned.

AGENDA – Patients’ Forum Meeting

Monday January 10th 2010, 5.30–7.30pm

Conference Room, LAS Headquarters, 220 Waterloo Road, SE1

Nearest Tube and Rail: Waterloo

Buses1,4,26,59,77,68,139,168,171,172,176,188,507,243,341,381,507,21

 

BSL signers will be available

1) Minutes of Meeting held December 13th 2010



2) Matters arising and action points


3) Chair’s Report – Joseph Healy


3) ‘Foundation Trust Status – Brave New World?’ – Presentation by Sandra Adams (Director of Corporate Services London Ambulance Service)


4) Patient and Public Involvement work in the LAS – Beverley Jeal (PPI Section, LAS)


5) Target performance and turnaround times and Category A and B calls.


LAS Commissioning Plan for 2011-12 - Presentation by Lead Commissioner


Press Reports


Correspondence


The meeting will close at 7.30pm

Coalition of Resistance National Council meeting and interview

Just got back from Spain earlier this week and things have not stopped since. I had the Lambeth Green Party meeting on Wednesday night and have been working full time for the last two days, also seeing a friend of mine from Ireland who is staying in London for a week or two. Also putting the papers together today for the next meeting of the London Ambulance Service Patients Forum on Monday.

In the interim Edward Lewis of New Left Project has finally sent me a copy of my interview with him last month and it is now up on their blog and will be up on the Coalition of Resistance site soon. I know that I may have ruffled a few feathers with my comments on the Right to Work (SWP front organisation) and also on the defects of Stop the War but my motto is always that one should be as forthright as possible in politics and address the issues head on.