Our next Forum public meeting will be 10.00 am on Tuesday 7th June 22 (30 minute earlier than usual) when you can come along 'in person' at Age UK, Lavinia House, Horsham or attend from the comfort of your home via Zoom. If you'd like to attend via Zoom please click here to ask for the joining information.
Our Guest speakers will include
1. Lagin Reicker from Ascot Care in Horsham to explain about 24/7 live in carers
2. Nicola Kemp & Tom Goodridge from West Sussex NHS Clinical Commissioning Group have been asked to give us the latest updates on:
a. current Covid booster rollout. Annual booster with a Flu jab?
b. the new Integrated Care Services and under new GP Contract i.e. GP appointments on Saturdays?
c. What are the new digital E-Consult GP services? Are they opening up nationwide? Can you still see your local GP? Is it user friendly for older people?
3. Lisa & Phil from HDC Community Link Alarms Service to explain about the change from analogue to digital SIM cards for the Link Alarms, which is linked to and leads nicely onto:
The ending of our BT landlines
Serious concern has been raised with the Forum and was put to Jeremy Quin MP at our MP Question Time meeting on the 1st April about BT ending our ordinary (using copper wire) home telephones and changing to telephones using the broadband internet. Some us us don't have the internet at home and also what happens if you have an emergency during a power cut when the internet and thus your telephone won't work? Whilst one suggested solution is to use a mobile phone, we don't all have one, plus a number of areas especially in rural settings have poor or no mobile phone signal.
Jeremy Quin MP has kindly sent us the 2 letters sent to him from Julia Lopez, Minister of State for Media, Data and Digital Infrastructure answering his questions.
Does this answer you concerns? If not then we can discuss further as with any other relevant issue you may want to raise at our public meeting on the 7th June.
Mobility Scooter Safety Training
The highly praised (and free) approx 90 minute safety course supported by the Forum and run by Horsham Town Community Partnership with friendly, trained instructors, is held in the Park Barn in Horsham Park. As well as safe riding techniques the course also covers how the scooter works, including the various buttons, knobs and switches which control speed and even turns off the power (which has caught many out thinking the battery has run out of power); even how to swivel the seat, how to enable the scooter to easily move backwards and much more. You'd be surprised as what you don't know. If you don't have a mobility scooter yet, they have one for you to learn on. If you'd like to attend (or arrange for a course to be run elsewhere in the district) For more details click here or visit https://horshamscootersafety.org.uk
We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday the 7th June whether in person or via Zoom. As always, thank you for supporting our Horsham District Older Peoples Forum