Last week in Parliament I opened a debate to mark Baby Loss Week. As I have written in the past, following my own tragic experience last year, this is an area that I know we need to spend more time talking about.
As co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Baby
Loss I now have a real opportunity to help people facing the same experience
and I am determined to make a genuine difference. I believe, despite the
advances of recent years, that as a society, we should do better in this area,
and truly I believe that we can.
Pregnancy and childbirth have always been perilous for women
and even now, in 2020, with all our medical advances, there are so many babies
we simply cannot save - early miscarriage stillbirth and the death of a
new-born are all too common.
You can watch my speech via the below link:
https://www.facebook.com/NigelHuddlestonMP/videos/454363278861539
Last Thursday’s debate looked at the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic on baby loss. I was grateful following my speech to have feedback from
a wide variety of people who have experienced their own losses as well as from
the maternity team at RCH Treliske, who have had to make their own adjustments
to continue working with the best interests of families at heart during this
difficult time.
Over the weekend the Government confirmed an extension of
the funding given to local authorities to support families with food and bills,
with a £170million Covid Winter Grant Scheme.
The funding will be ring-fenced, with at least 80% earmarked
to support with food and bills, and will cover the period to the end of March
2021. Local Authorities will receive the funding at the beginning of December
2020 and Cornwall Council will be receiving £1.8million.
This funding will allow councils to directly help the
hardest-hit families and individuals, as well as provide food for children who
need it over the holidays. Crucially, it will not just be limited to families
that were eligible for free school meals, but will also be available for
families that are not normally but have encountered difficulties during the
COVID-19 pandemic, something that I have been working with colleagues to make
the case to the Government for.
On Monday the company Pfizer published positive results from
test studies of their potential COVID-19 vaccine.
Their vaccine has been tested on over 40,000 volunteers and
interim results suggest it is proving 90 per cent effective at protecting
people against the virus.
The vaccine now needs to be peer reviewed and if it does
pass peer review, our NHS is ready to roll out a national vaccination
programme, before the end of the year.
This is exciting news, but we must not be complacent. The
virus is still very much out there and we must do all we can to follow the
rules, stay safe and do all we can to stop it spreading.
My thanks continue to everyone working during these restrictions,
key workers and volunteers, who are doing their bit to help our most vulnerable
people and keep our communities in Truro and Falmouth running through this
difficult time.
If you need my assistance with anything then my team and I
are here to help. Please get in touch with me by email at
Cherilyn.mackrory.mp@parliament.uk, by telephone on 01872 229698.
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