Have your flu jab! I do - and your NHS needs you to get this protection: if you are entitled to the free flu jab then please get it!

I need the flu jab because I had my spleen kicked to bits in a racing fall at Stratford 10 years ago - I liked the horse so much that I tried to catch it as it fell on top of me at the second last fence at Stratford races; the combination of the fall and the horse landing on me crushed my left side, broke over ten ribs, displaced some vertebrae, gave me a pneumothorax (Rib through the lung) and perforated my spleen; this damaged and perforated spleen was then taken out by a great surgeon called Mr. Mike Stellakis, at Warwick General Hospital, leaving me with a scar down my tummy, and the loss of a key element of the body's protective system. As a result I am immuno compromised. Without the operation I would have died. I did keep racing as a jockey, after a long recovery, and even raced again at Stratford, but I owe a massive debt to the NHS.

The loss of my spleen puts me in a group that includes pensioners, the pregnant, and other at risk groups who need the flu jab. It is a scandal that some people who are entitled to a free flu jab are failing to take up the jab, which could save their life.

Please make sure you ask your elderly relatives, or those like me who are in an at risk group, to get the jab. Some people will die or get very sick this winter because of the lack of this and it is totally wrong, and totally avoidable. The jab is free and available at all GPs. Not only is this a potential tragedy, but if people get sick through failing to have the flu jab they can occupy much needed hospital beds, with everything that this entails for both the hospital and the wider community.

3 years ago I had my jab done in less than 3 minutes by Sarah at the Haltwhistle GP Clinic. It does not hurt [much!] and will save your life!! Please make sure you check your parents, elderly relatives and neighbours have done the same thing.

The Weekend Read: why does Hexham Hospital charge for parking now we have free parking in Hexham?

I have probably spent more time in hospital than any other MP - by reason of jockey injuries or more recent mishaps in 2011. My grandmother was an NHS Matron and I can genuinely say that I have had my life saved twice by the NHS.

When you are a visitor or a patient in hospital, you are at your most distressed, emotional and concerned. The last thing people need in such times are the worry of how long they’ve got left on the parking meter.
For many years we have fought for free parking in the town of Hexham. This last year we have had success, and parking is free in Hexham now.

Yet the Hospital are continuing to charge for parking. I met with Health bosses and their answer was evasive; they promised to get back to me. They have not done so despite several prompts.

Around a quarter of hospitals in England do not charge for parking at all, and car parking fees have been abolished in Scotland and Wales. The reality is trhat local people are now parking in the town car parking spaces rather than using the hospital car park and paying. So the Trust is running a loss making service. The trust still refuse to change.

I beleive the best approach for the trust is to say that where parking is paid for in a town and free in a Hospital they have to guard against people abusing a situation to park free in Hexham by using the Hexham Hospital car park. Now bizarrely, Hexham Hospital is charging - and the rest of the town is free. This cannot continue.

There are a huge number of emotional and practical benefits that parking brings to patients. For many patients, driving is the only option. As Macmillan point out, “public transport and hospital transport are often neither adequate nor suitable for cancer patients”. Equally, patients who live in rural areas or have to come to hospital at unconventional hours barely have a choice. In the last National Patient Choice Survey, 46 per cent of patients rated car parking as one of the factors in choosing a hospitals.
Patients should have the peace of mind to be able to focus solely on getting the best care available.

Of all those whom our taxes go to help, none are more vulnerable or more guiltless than those whom the NHS serves. Hexham Hospital need to do the right thing - with free hospital parking helping those most in need; we ought to protect these most vulnerable and unfortunate, and provide a service that is equal and fair for all, and to make it as easy as possible for families to be together in their time of need. The Trust are good people but on the wrong side of our argument on this one.

Hexham Hospital

To the Hospital for a briefing and an opportunity to get a real understanding of the amazing work being done there. There are many changes in NHS provision in Northumberland, and Hexham is at the heart of those changes. The cancer treatment ward really impressed - this is local healthcare as it should be.