Meeting with my MP

On Friday I had a meeting my local MP. He’s a Tory, which meant that I had a dilemma. Did I go and ask him for help in chasing up my surgery date or did I ask him about ‘party gate’ and why he continues to support Boris? Part of me wanted to go in there and grill him on why he’s not written to the 1922 committee, why he always votes with the whip even when it means his constituents will suffer as a result and to make him understand that I’m angry. Every time I switch on the news there’s another scandal, another cost of living increase, another example of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer and I’m fed up of it all. Fed up and enraged.

But when I wrote this on my Facebook page last night…

…a friend wrote this comment which got me thinking… ‘Definitely ask for help for yourself. Having a go won’t achieve anything as they’re all deaf and will say exactly what you want to hear and then deliver nothing. They’re all the same just different coloured leaflets and ties!’

Going in there and ‘having a go’ might have made me feel good for all of 5 minutes but what would it have actually achieved? Nothing. I’m sure all he would have offered me would have been the party line and some platitudes. So I decided that I might as well see if he is able to do something that might end up making a huge difference to my life.

I’ve never met with an MP before but I have sent emails in the past when something has really pissed me off. Having now had my surgery postponed three times I figured I had nothing to lose by asking for his help. The MP’s surgery was in a local community centre and I wasn’t surprised to see a police car sat outside, especially after Sir David Amess was stabbed to death last year. He was running a bit late so I waited and then went in to see him. Obviously our politics are polar opposites but I have to say that he seemed a decent bloke. I’m not one of these people that thinks all MP’s are lying arseholes (just the prime minister!) and I think that in general they work incredibly hard.

He listened to what I had to say and I tried to explain my complex medical situation in the most basic of terms. He seemed genuinely concerned by the fact I had spent so much time in hospital and that I’ve been unable to get the surgery I desperately need due to the huge waiting lists within the NHS. I did touch on the fact I’m also waiting to have 3 teeth removed but he struggled to grasp why this was such a serious issue for me so I decided to focus on the need for surgery.

He explained that he couldn’t influence the hospital but he could write to them on my behalf and enquire where I am on the waiting list and when I might expect to get a surgery date. I stressed that I wasn’t looking to jump the queue and that I had no complaints with the treatment I had received within the hospital but that not knowing when I might have surgery has an impact on both my physical and mental health and that while I wait I will continue to yo-yo in and out of hospital.

Yesterday I received this email from him:

So fingers crossed he gets a response from the hospital trust soon and that this might get things moving 🤞🏻

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