11/01/2017 Look East

Hello, and welcome to the Look East late news.

Calling for a radical overhaul of the politics and finances

of the NHS - the Norfolk MP Norman Lamb.

And the Prime Minister says she'll listen.

on drivers who wrongly park in disabled bays.

And I'm at Ketteringham Depot, where the gritters are hitting the roads

First tonight, MPs from this region are spearheading a cross-party

campaign to solve the crisis in NHS funding.

The North Norfolk MP and former health minister Norman Lamb has

brought together MPs from all parties, including

They believe the issue is so important it can't

And they've now secured a meeting with Prime Minister Teresa May.

In a moment, we'll speak to Norman Lamb,

It's been described as the toughest winter yet for the NHS.

GPs are struggling to cope with demand, A E departments

are full to capacity, and problems with the social care

system mean patients are stuck in hospital

Today, Norman Lamb asked the Prime Minister to sit down

and talk to his cross-party group of concerned MPs.

Would the Prime Minister the prepared to meet

with us just to discuss it, so she can hear our case?

Well, I recognise obviously the interest and attention

that the honourable gentleman has given to these issues.

And of course, he is a former health minister himself.

And I will be happy to meet with him and others as he suggests.

Among the group of MPs and former health secretaries

is Dr Dan Poulter, the former Conservative health minister

He has seen the pressures for himself.

Speaking as somebody who also works in the NHS,

and has been working in the NHS this week, I've seen the real pressure

that many front-line staff face in delivering high

It's probably the worst situation I can remember in my decade

Real pressure, and it is time to find more money

Cold weather can be seriously bad for your health.

The NHS is always asking us to think carefully before

At the surgery in Beccles in Suffolk, they operate

To filter out calls that aren't urgent.

Hello, Dr Morton from the surgery here.

That still leaves 300-400 call-backs every day for the GPs.

The promises that Government have been talking about the last two

years, we've yet to really see them on the front line.

We wait in hope, but I think hope is rapidly fading.

And it is feelings like that that will provide a stark backdrop

to the forthcoming meeting between the MPs and Theresa May.

A short while ago, I put it to Norman Lamb that

good care costs money, and there isn't any,

And so the question is, how much are we prepared to how pay

in order to ensure our loved ones get care where they need it?

From my point of view, I would be prepared to pay a bit more.

I realise you must ensure you don't overburden people with tax,

but I think if people could see, if there was an independent

assessment of how much the system needed, if we had a dedicated health

and care tax, which is something we are looking into,

I think you could take people with you.

How much more do you think we are talking

The equivalent of 1p on Income Tax would make a big difference.

It would bring a significant amount of extra resources

which could have a really positive impact on both the health

That would be a start, but I want to see,

and what I have launched today, is a cross-party process.

We are calling on the Government to establish what we are calling

a NHS and Care Convention to engage with the public, level with people

about the challenge we face, how much money we are prepared

to pay in order to ensure that we have a good and effective

Would you describe the NHS as in crisis currently?

The Government says more people than ever before are being cared for.

We are seeing significant, record numbers of people stuck

in hospital long after their due date of discharge.

We have seen people stuck in ambulances waiting to get into A E

Record numbers of operations being cancelled.

Wherever you look across the system, it is under impossible strain.

We are relying, I think, on the goodwill of staff who are

We are the fifth or sixth largest economy in the world -

I think we are capable of doing better than this.

The inquest into the suicide of a 25-year-old man at Chelmsford

Prison has heard an accusation that a mental health assessment

of him was "bent" to a pre-determined outcome.

Dean Saunders, from Basildon, was jailed - not sectioned -

after attacking members of his own family

Lynn Johnston, who organised the assessment for the local

mental health trust, told the jury she honestly couldn't

recall whether she had told the doctors that Dean had made

clear his determination to take his life.

Sean Horstead, representing Dean's family, said she had an abundance

He'd made a serious assault on family members,

It would have been a gross failure on her part if she hadn't

In his view, the assessment at Basildon police station was,

as he put it, "bent" to a predetermined outcome.

Come what may, Mr Saunders was to go through the criminal justice system.

This afternoon, Abdul Kallon, a mental health nurse

at Chelmsford Prison Hospital, said when he met Dean,

he found him suspicious, guarded, clearly paranoid with scratches

He was saying, I just want to end it all.

Dean's parents and partner and other family members have listened

Tomorrow, they and the jury will hear from a head of health care

and a number of prison officers at the jail.

Well, we heard strong criticism of Lynn Johnston from the Saunders

Miss Johnston said she believed she had followed all the correct

processes and hopes she had shared all the key information.

She said the team didn't believe that Mr Saunders met the criteria

to be detained under the Mental Health Act.

Next tonight, the supermarket cracking down on drivers parking

in spaces set aside for drivers with disabilities or

A Co-op supermarket in Suffolk has brought in a private

Around 50 parking charges are being issued every day.

This isn't a knee jerk reaction by the East

of England Co-op - quite the reverse.

In 2014, it started putting up warning signs and had people

in the car park in its store at Combs Ford, urging drivers

From last month, it has been relying on an enforcement firm.

Over a ten day period, more than 500 fines were issued.

It demonstrates, says the company, apathy among drivers to the people

I need that room to get in and out of my car.

You dare not say anything because, if you do, you get a load of abuse.

There are 100 spaces in the car park, with eight set aside

for drivers with disabilities, six for young families,

and one for people making a quick stop to use the cash machine.

The Co-op says, while there is always discretion with every case,

it has a duty to keep the designated areas free for those who need them.

I think we got to the point where we tried education,

we tried to speak to people, we tried that on a one-to-one basis.

And in some cases, actually, we received abuse

The punishment is ?60 if paid within two weeks, ?100 if not.

All the money goes to the enforcement company.

Of the 500 or so fines already issued, 125 have been paid,

The position with the remainder is so far unclear.

But some drivers are determined to dig in.

Parked at the ATM bay with my kids and partner.

She used the ATM bay, three minutes, three or four days later I got

The Co-op has around 120 food outlets in the region.

As for whether more sites could follow suit, it says any

decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.

But with wintry showers forecast for tomorrow,

Alex has been to a gritting depot in Norfolk.

Hello there, I'm at Ketteringham Depot just outside Norwich,

where the gritting trucks have already been out on the roads.

They will be doing another run at 3am.

They form part of teams across the county that, together,

will distribute 300 tonnes of grit to make our roads safer.

And tonight, our temperatures are certainly going to drop away

Under clear skies across much of the region, we can expect

temperatures as low as one or 2 degrees, bringing a risk

Tomorrow's weather is going to be shaped by this weather system coming

It is going to bring a spell of rain, but there is an increasing

likelihood that that rain could turn to sleet or snow by the afternoon.

And there is a yellow Met Office weather warning out for the risk

of snow and ice as we look through the day.

But we start of the day dry and bright.

It will tend to turn increasingly cloudy as we go through the day.

With this spell of rain moving through from the West.

It is also going to be a very cold day, with highs

As we get into the late afternoon and evening,

it is likely that some of this rain could turn to sleet or snow

That brings lots of hazards with icy roads and quite treacherous

And for the afternoon and into the evening, the risk

The national weather is coming up, but here is the outlook.

It is going to stay cold for Friday, bitterly cold with a northerly wind

coming in, bringing some wintry showers for the coast.

Looking dry and bright elsewhere, and a cold start to the weekend.

potentially leading us into a chilly start to the weekend. Time for the

national weather prospects if you are on the move.

Good evening, a lot going on with the weather in the next few days,

numerous weather warnings in for so buried in mind if you have travel

plans. Lots of isobars on the chart overnight which means it will be

windy for all. The strongest winds in Scotland, lots of wintry showers

with snow getting down to increasingly low levels and some

wintry showers in Northern Ireland and northern England. A cold night

for Northern England, particularly in more rural spots, frosty and I

see for some and some of the snow really blowing around over higher

ground in Scotland. Strong wind and further snow to take us into

tomorrow. It may well make for