One month today in Olney...

Olney Post Office is located inside McColl's newsagent in the market place, and has for many years offered a great service with typical opening times of 9.30am-5.30pm Monday- Friday, and 9am-12.30pm on Saturdays.

One month today, the Post Office will be re-opening following a 10-day refurbishment, which will improve the services offered to customers and also add an extra 59 hours a week of opening times. This is particularly good news if you're working 9-5 and need to post a parcel, as it looks like Olney Post office will be open until around 9pm every night, with increased hours over the weekend. The improved services will include bill payment, banking, benefits, travel money, home shopping returns and local collections. The refurbishment of the shop will feature a new open-plan layout, all aiming to help make life easier for Post Office customers, meaning you can use all of the Post Office services without having to go into the city.

This does mean that the Post Office will be shut from 5.30pm on 27th October until November 12th, but during this time, your nearest Post Office's are Lavendon and Newport Pagnell.

Could we lose our A & E?

Although we might not all visit A & E regularly (we hope!), it's reassuring to know it's there if and when we need it. However, recent reports are saying that Milton Keynes and Bedford A&Es could be shut down in order to try and save money under a services review. This would leave those in the area of these services (around 500,000 people) having to travel an extra 20 miles to get to the nearest accident and emergency centres- in either Northampton, Kettering or Luton.

The fact that the centre has 'emergency' in its name would imply the serious need for it to be near to a high percentage of the public, and while there are no plans decided yet, these are the fears which the review has raised. Having to travel 20 miles instead of maybe one or two could potentially mean the difference between life and death for some of the more serious health issues and accidents, and for those without transport access will be even more difficult and expensive.

In cases where people are taken further afield in order to receive more specialist care, it makes sense, but to demand all emergency patients to travel further will surely put more pressure on these specialist services. It seems the NHS want to try and save money and improve GP and community services to help prevent people from having to go to hospital in the first place, but if these improvements come at the cost of cutting other important services, is it really worth it?

Final decisions will be made in 2015, let's keep our fingers crossed to keep emergency healthcare local!