The Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) on Sunday gave the world premier of "Ballata" by the Italian composer Francesco Antonioni. The work had been commissioned for Dr Charles West a Shropshire GP.
Think twice before you write to your MP.
Liberal Democrats deplore the Government's attempt to give MPs special privileges that will allow them to keep the expenses claims secret.
Sir, As the bombs continue to fall, and the rockets continue to fly the people of Shropshire have joined in a call for peace. ...
So the government is going to train every GP in the early recognition of dementia!  "There is no denying that the increase in Alzheimer's disease is a major problem for individuals, for families and for society as a whole," said Dr Charles West, local Liberal Democrat campaigner. "Unfortunately it is not as easy as simply training GPs to recognise the symptoms and telling them to refer to a specialist. Not all lapses of memory are dementia and not all dementia is Alzheimer's disease. There are no drugs recommended for mild or early dementia, there are too few specialists, and too few memory clinics. If as the government minister says every GP is trained to recognise the symptoms of early dementia and refer to a specialist, then the service will be choked with referrals, and most of the patients referred will have no treatment offered to them. What we need is more research into drug treatments, and more investment into support services. There is much that skilled nurses and psychologists can offer to
Shropshire GPs are easier to access than GPs in the rest of the country. The official results of the national General Practitioner Assessment Questionnaire (GPAQ) were announced last week. Shropshire Practices had a higher level of satisfaction with opening hours, and with the availability of appointments than the average national response. What is more the figures have improved this year compared with last year. "This is a credit to Shropshire Practices," said Liberal Democrat campaigner Dr Charles West. "In a rural county like Shropshire it is always challenging to make services  accessible locally. We have seen local Post Offices and schools under threat, so it is good to see that at least for the time being we have better access to GPs than much of the country. Unfortunately the picture is not completely rosy. There are twenty Practices waiting for funding to improve their premises. District nurses and chiropodists have been removed by the PCT from local Practices. And some Practices hav
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