October 2022

11 Buckden Roundabout October 2022 Village News Buckden Neighbourhood Watch FOCUS ON STUDENT SCAMS This is the time of year when younger residents will be return- ing to or attending for the first time Colleges and Universities. It is inevitable that they risk becoming the target for Scam- mers. There are Five main types of Student Scams but beware the Scammers spend a lot of time thinking up new ways of cheating. LOAN SCAMS These are usually received as phishing emails or text. You must be clear that you know the identity of the send- er. Clicking on the link can lead to a fraudulent site. RENTAL SCAMS These are usually advertisements for a prop- erty that does not exist. They will request a deposit. ONLINE TICKETS FOR GIGS These offer tickets for events (sometimes for events where tickets are difficult to obtain). They will ask for payments in advance, but you never receive the tickets. If a ticket seems cheap - Beware. Only use reputable booking sites. MONEY MULE SCAMS A ’ Money Mule sometimes called a ‘ Smurfer ’. They try to per- suade you to accept stolen or other illegal money into your bank account to make it appear to come from a legal source. Avoid - you will be aiding an illegal transaction or other crime. SOCIAL MEDIA SCAMS The same advice applies that was given for ‘ Tickets for Gigs ’. Beware of buying tickets off social media sites. Use reputable agents or ticket offices wherever possible. Some general advice should always be followed: A. Avoid the paid links at the top of the search engine search- es. B. Bogus sites can pay for advertisements as well. C. Check the contact details of the site you ’ re buying the tick- ets from. There should be a landline phone number and a full postal address D. Avoid using the site if there is only a PO Box address and mobile phone number. RICHARD WEST Village Coordinator 01480 811467 / 07841 866630 To contact the police: 999 in an emergency; 0800 555 111 Crime Stoppers; 0300 123 2040 Action Fraud. EMAIL burglarycrackdown@cambs.pnn.police.uk or visit www.crimestoppers.uk.org or you can telephone 101 Suspicions or concerns can be reported via the police force ’ s online web chat function here https://bit.ly/3tfssQF Or via the online reporting forms here https://bit.ly/3ck9z85 Buckden and Little Paxton Sur- geries Patient Participation Group By the time you read this our A.G.M. will be done and dusted, occurring as it did on the 20th of September, and a new Com- mittee will have been elected. I hope to provide a full account of proceedings in the November edition of the Roundabout. As mentioned, in the September edition, our Group will now be contributing an article on a monthly basis. These articles will focus mainly on the activities of our local Patient Participa- tion Group (PPG). However, they will also allow space, and attention, to be given to the Health Sector in Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. This coverage will include our local Hospital Trust, North West Anglia Foundation Trust (NWAFT), with Hinchingbrooke Hospital being featured. I will be reporting on developments there, from my perspective as an elected Public Governor, representing the Huntingdonshire Constituency, within the Trust. Turning first to our PPG, one of our primary objectives is to recruit committee members from a younger demographic, and also from a more diverse background, and if anyone is inter- ested in joining us please make use of my contact details, which will be displayed at the end of this article. Our core pur- pose is to improve communications between patients and the surgeries, then highlighting areas of practice that need atten- tion. We have already updated our constitution and terms of reference, to accord with these principles. Secondly, NWAFT provides a monthly Governor Bulletin, which Governors are expected to report on, to both Trust members and to the general public. In the September Bulletin, it was noted that the Emergency Department performance and the Ambulance handover delays have been among the worst in England in August. Again, targets for seeing patients suffering from cancer and referred by their G.P.s are not being met, within the expected 2 week window. Bed occupancy remains an acute issue, locally and nationally. One indication of this is the fact that currently 1 in 7 hospital beds nationally are occu- pied by patients declared fit for discharge, but unable to be discharged because of problems with social care placements. Finally, our surgeries are once more organising Covid - 19 and Flu Clinics, with Clinics scheduled for the 8th and the 15th of October, and with a further clinic to be held on the 26th of November. And the Volunteer Team is being recalled to ser- vice, to offer help and support with these Clinics. Further, our PPG will also be involved, in running a Coffee Morning on the 15th, and providing coffee, tea and biscuits, while based at the Scout Huts in Buckden and Little Paxton. Please come and visit us on the morning of the 15th, following your visit to the sur- geries. Look forward to meeting you then. On behalf of our Committee Rob Gardiner, Chair of PPG, 01480 812383