Romseyredhead

Sunday, March 06, 2005

Women Lib Dems Policy Fringe

Seven female speakers and each given the brief of speaking for three minutes on a topic (mine was health) and answering questions for three minutes.

Unfortunately the meeting was not tightly chaired and we spent far too much time on health at the beginning so felt a bit guilty that some of the later speakers had a bit less time than they should have done. Having said that it was clear that health was still very much a hot potato and subjects included

condemnation of the "Margaret's shoulder" approach
NICE review of anti-dementia drugs
Out of hours services
Booking GP appointments
Use of the private sector
Charging for eye tests and cost of spectacles
rationing
skewed priorities
Hearing tests
etc etc


Interesting to note that there were also a lot of men in the audience which is a bit of a first for a women's event but I think it was because there was a chance to bone up on policy.