26/07/2014 – The NEN – North Edinburgh News

Health and social care hub plans ‘progressing well’

North West Partnership Centre planning application submitted

Plans for two new health and social care hubs in Edinburgh are ‘progressing well’, according to city leaders.

The new £12-million North West Edinburgh Partnership Centre submitted a planning application to the City of Edinburgh Council last month, while plans for the £7-million Firrhill Partnership Centre have now been approved.

The development of the new centres is being carried out in partnership between NHS Lothian and the City of Edinburgh Council and once completed will bring increased health and social care services to Muirhouse, Firrhill and their surrounding communities.

Peter Gabbitas, Joint Director, Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership said: “The plans for the North West Edinburgh Partnership centre and Firrhill Partnership Centre are progressing well.

“These are excellent examples of the benefits of bringing health and social care services together on one site and in so doing putting children’s health and welfare at the forefront of our services.”

Cllr Ricky Henderson, Health, Social Care and Housing Convener, said: “We are committed to providing high quality health and social care within communities, and working in partnership with organisations such as NHS Lothian on projects like the North West Partnership Centre is a great way to ensure this happens.”

Hub South East Scotland Ltd, the Council and NHS Lothian’s development partner, is delivering the projects, having appointed GRAHAM Construction as the contractor to build the new centres.

Paul McGirk, Chief Executive, Hub South East Scotland Ltd said: “These key planning milestones mark an exciting step forward in the development of the Partnership Centres, which will make a real difference to local communities. We look forward to continuing our successful partnership with NHS Lothian and the City of Edinburgh, to make these plans a reality.”

The NHS Lothian-led Partnership Centre will bring Council and NHS services into one location on Pennywell Gardens, behind the Pennywell shopping centre. It is anticipated that the following new services will be available within the new centre:

General Practice
District Nursing and Health Visitor
Dentistry
Dietetics
Podiatry
Physiotherapy
Child and Adolescense Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
Speech and Language
Community Paediatrics
Edinburgh Council, Children and Families
North West Carers and other Voluntary Sector

There are also plans to situate a mental health and substance misuse recovery hub in Craigroyston Health Clinic following completion of the new partnership centre.

It is anticipated that the Scottish Government will approve the Outline Business Case for both projects in the next few months. If that happens, construction of the new Centres is scheduled to start by next summer and they will open to the public in autumn 2016.

Gaza: more UK aid to stricken civilians

The UK will provide an additional £2 million in emergency assistance for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s (UNRWA) Gaza Flash Appeal, International Development Secretary Justine Greening announced this morning – bringing the amount released this week to help Gaza to £7 million.

International Development Secretary Justine Greening said: “More than 800 Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks, with thousands injured and many tens of thousands displaced. It is essential that civilians are protected and all sides must allow aid agencies unimpeded access to get to those in desperate need.

“A ceasefire needs to be agreed urgently as the first step towards a sustainable political solution. That is the only hope for peace and stability in the long term.”

The UK Government is clear that all sides must adhere to International Humanitarian Law and that all feasible precautions must be taken to avoid harm to civilians during a military attack.

Overall, the UK is the fourth biggest donor to UNRWA, providing £106.5m from 2011-2015. That funding is already helping UNRWA provide health services and shelter for Gazans affected by the fighting.

The amount committed by Britain to UNWRA’s emergency appeal in the last week is now £4 million. It will fund basic shelter, blankets, hygiene kits, nappies and other vital help for tens of thousands of people forced to flee their homes. The UK has also brought forward £3 million of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) support to help it respond to the worsening situation.

Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday, urging him to show equal determination in the UK Government’s approach to the situation in Gaza as they have shown in regard to the atrocity involving Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.

In particular Mr Salmond has called on the UK Government to make a stronger and more urgent response to the crisis in Gaza and – further to the statement by Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, about the failure to distinguish between civilians and combatants – to support an UN investigation.

Mr Salmond said: “The UK rightly called for a UN resolution to guarantee unfettered access to the crash site of flight MH17 and I was pleased to see this gained the support of the Security Council. It is imperative that an international investigation into the cause of the crash proceeds swiftly and effectively, and that the results of that investigation are appropriately acted upon.

“The efforts of the international community, working in concert, reflect the real benefits of a multilateral approach to matters of global security.

“It is with that cooperative spirit in mind that I have urged the UK Government to demonstrate equal determination in cooperating with international partners to resolve the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Middle East.

“The ground offensive in Gaza is a serious and worrying development. The lives lost in this conflict are individual human tragedies and the killing of innocent civilians, be they Palestinian or Israeli, is to be utterly condemned.

“The UN Security Council has called for an immediate cessation of hostilities, emphasising the need to improve the humanitarian situation, and I add my voice to theirs to reiterate that, in the view of the Scottish Government, the rocket attacks on Israel are unacceptable and should stop, as should the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

“The situation in Gaza represents a humanitarian crisis of grave proportions. More than 800 people, most of them civilians, have already lost their lives and over 5,000 have been injured. The UN states that more 118,000 Gazans are sheltering in UN schools. The attack on the school in Beit Hanoun on 24 July, condemned by the UN Secretary General, only serves to underline the desperate need for international action to stop the killing of innocent civilians.

“We note calls for an independent investigation into civilian deaths as a result of the conflict. Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has commented on the failure to distinguish between civilians and combatants, or to maintain proportionality and precautions in attack. The need for an investigation by the UN is therefore imperative. I urge the UK to give support to these calls.

“Scotland’s offer of medical assistance to help the humanitarian situation still stands and we are currently in dialogue to assess whether Scotland can give specialist medical help to civilians caught up in the conflict should medical evacuation be possible.

“The Scottish Government also believes that the continuation of the blockade in Gaza is exacerbating the suffering experienced by the people there and tantamount to collective punishment. For that reason, I reiterate the Scottish Government’s offer to accept our share of any refugees from the conflict arriving in the UK.

“The Scottish Government stand ready to deliver this support, and any further assistance as deemed necessary and appropriate.”

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Mikaeel: mother pleads guilty to reduced charge

Rosdeep Adekoya, the mother of three-year-old Mikaeel Kular, has admitted killing her son and hiding his body in a suitcase. Adekoya had originally been charged with murder but admitted the reduced charge of culpable homicide when she appeared at Edinburgh’s High Court yesterday. She will be sentenced next month.

Advocate depute Alex Prentice said: “The basis for the plea tendered being accepted is that the Crown accepts that the accused had no intention to kill Mikaeel and that the assault perpetrated upon him, although severe, fell short of the wicked recklessness required for murder.”

However there is some anger that the Crown agreed to the reduced charges. One neighbour, who was involved in the two-day search for the little boy and was present at the High Court, said the decision was ‘a disgrace. This was murder’.

Mikaeel died two days after being beaten by Rosdeep Adekoya at the family’s flat in Muirhouse in January. She put his body in a suitcase, which she then dumped behind her sister’s house in Kirkcaldy. Ms Adekoya told police that Mikaeel had disappeared from the family home, sparking a massive major two-day search.

Adekoya also admitted attempting to defeat the ends of justice by pretending to police that Mikaeel had gone missing.

She pleaded guilty to repeatedly punching her son and causing his body to hit against a hard object or inflicting blunt injuries on his head and body between 12 and 15 January at their home in Ferry Gait Crescent.

She also admitted wrapping Mikaeel’s body in a duvet cover, putting it in a suitcase and driving to Dunvegan Avenue in Kirkcaldy, Fife, where she hid the case under a bush in woods behind a house.

She had called 999 to report her son missing to police, telling officers he got out of bed and climbed on a stool to unlock the front door of his home.

She admitted causing a major search for her son, involving police, the fire service, coastguard, mountain rescue crews and members of the public.

The court heard harrowing details of how Mikaeel died on the night of Tuesday 14 January from injuries inflicted the previous Sunday. Ms Adekoya then took Mikaeel’s twin sister to nursery at Flora Stevenson’s School before driving over to Fife with the three year old boy’s body in the boot of the car.

The court heard that Adekoya later broke down during a police interview and told officers: “It was an accident and I panicked. I am going to go to the jail.” She subsequently then took police to her son’s body in the woods, where it was found in a suitcase covered with branches.

The cause of death was found to be “blunt force abdominal trauma” – Mikaeel had more than 40 separate injuries to his body.

Sentence was deferred until 25 August.