I WISH Andy Burnham well now that he’s been “enthroned” into 10 Downing St. Though I didn’t like how his predecessor was treated. What is done is done.

I know Andy. We worked on projects together in the past. Played in the same (House of Commons) football team, and shared campaign material and plans. I believe he’s motivated to do the right thing for those who most need help. But, like most PMs, it really depends on the character of the people he gathers around him. After all, they determine what actually happens with his diary, who he sees and is influenced by, who briefs him and what he sees and hears.

I’ll be doing all I can to make sure he listens to the voices of our part of the world and not just the poles of Manchester and Westminster.

Our campaign to stop the planned swingeing cuts to our much-valued Coastguard volunteers’ duty payments has succeeded. Many thanks to all those who’ve promoted and supported this important campaign.

This will be an enormous relief to hundreds of Coastguard Rescue Officers (CROs) - many of whom feared they were being forced out of the service - and to our coastal communities, who depend on them to help keep us safe.

Special thanks to our local Coastguards for keeping me briefed and to Government Minister, Kier Mather MP, for listening and acting.

I pressed NHS chief – Dr Penny Dash - to ensure that clinicians have a “safe space” where they can raise concerns about patient safety. The last thing our NHS needs is a climate of fear where matters must be bottled up, services become dysfunctional and a bullying culture is permitted to pervade. This means patient safety is put at risk, and then lengthy and expensive Inquiries often need to be commissioned to deal with the shocking and distressing impact this has on the lives of many people, not least patients and the frontline clinicians who have to endure working in such an environment.

I was honoured last week to be invited as after-dinner speaker at the Royal College of Anaesthetists’ President’s Annual Dinner, in Central London, alongside NHS Chair Dr Penny Dash.

However, one important organisation which Dr Penny Dash has recommended should be amalgamated into the Care Quality Commission (and effectively undermined) is the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB). But HSSIB provides the very “safe space” in which clinicians at all levels can report/whistle blow concerns about poor practice and risks to patient safety in a climate where, crucially, they have “protected disclosure”; ie protected from litigation. This could easily be undermined by Dr Dash’s proposals.

Therefore, without making an after-dinner speech too combative (that’s not in the spirit of such speeches!), I felt I managed to keep the message clear, good-humoured, but got the point over.

I was approached by many senior anaesthetists after the dinner who strongly agreed with that point (and indeed several other important issues smuggled into the light and I hope entertaining speech).