More money for the local NHS to help our GPs and hospitals do their job

There’s a tentative sense of confidence after eighteen months of lockdown and restrictions on our lives caused by the rapid spread of various variants of COVID-19. We have made huge progress – but there is still further to go.

In the four years since I was elected to represent Brentwood and Ongar in Parliament I have received a small but steady number of emails from constituents whose loved ones need more care to enable them to live safely, either in their homes or within a care home.

The final step of the Government’s roadmap out of lockdown is now in place, – with social distancing and mask-wearing requirements in law ending, large events restarting, restrictions on care home visits being lifted and all businesses being allowed to fully reopen.

As of this last weekend, all adults can now book a life-saving COVID vaccine. Everyone aged 18 and over is being urged to arrange a jab if they have not yet had one as the NHS COVID Vaccination Programme, the biggest in health service history, begins the final push to protect the country.

The changeable weather in Brentwood and Ongar last week seemed reflect the uncertainty on whether the country will be able to open up fully on 21 June. Some days the outlook was terrific – others it was less sunny.

It’s a year this week since the Prime Minister appeared on our TV screens to explain the UK was entering a period a lockdown to try to bring the rising rates of coronavirus infections under control.

The next review of the current lockdown restrictions is due this week and, here in Brentwood and Ongar, the number of coronavirus infections is falling. In less than two months we have gone from having one of the highest rates of infection in England to one of the lowest in Essex.

More than twelve million people across the UK have now received their first vaccination against the worst effects of COVID-19, with half a million of those being fully vaccinated with the follow up dose.

I am pleased to report that the roll out of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines is now well underway across Brentwood with hundreds of vulnerable older people having already received doses at our vaccination hubs.

It has been extremely impressive to see how Brentwood Community Hospital has developed and grown during the course of the pandemic.