I recently spoke with Geo Sebastian, a psychiatric nurse from Orchard Park.  Geo was really clear about the biggest issues affecting Indian Nurses in Greater Cambridge;

• Housing
• Transport
• Access to NHS services particularly GPs and Dentists.

These concerns are not unique to nurses but Geo explained how they affect the nursing community.  

Housing

Many Indian nurses come to the UK to work at Addenbrookes, once here they struggle to find affordable housing. Lack of housing comes up again and again in our area. The NHS staff we rely on need good quality, affordable places to live near key NHS sites. Despite the scale of house building here affordability remains a top issue and the rental market is not working effectively.

Government must fix the broken rental market and give local government the tools it needs to expand affordable housing.  We need homes of all sizes for people at all stages of life and more council houses.  Liberal Democrats are supporting local housing, Cambourne, Northstowe, Darwin Green and Waterbeach are all also growing fast but change at national level is needed to fix the broken system.  

Transport

When finding a place to live is difficult, transport quickly becomes the next problem. There is an urgent need for better transport solutions to get people to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus/Addenbrookes site. Tens of thousands of people work there and use the site. The queues of backed up traffic get longer and longer.

Infrastructure solutions are coming but we need better buses in the short term to see us through.  Cambridge South train station at Addenbrookes will transform rail access.  The current busway carries thousands of people daily, and the three new busways will be transformational for people living in Cambourne, Waterbeach and the Shelford – Linton ‘CSET’ corridor who currently have no choice but to spend hours every week queueing in traffic.  

NHS

Access to NHS services was another issue Geo raised.  Seeing a GP or dentist is particularly difficult for key workers whose jobs are often characterised by a lack of flexibility. 

There are solutions which could provide NHS services to key workers. Addenbrookes could offer GP services to it’s employees but the NHS is notoriously inflexible due to top down decision making.  Liberal Democrats believe in listening to people and trying to solve problems quickly and efficiently.    

Geo’s insights into the issues he and his colleagues face are invaluable. Keyworkers provide the services we rely on and which make society work.  They deserve better.