Stickytiles
My name is Hugh Murphy and I was
raised in Bridge of Weir in the 70’s,
qualifi ed from university in Edinburgh
and spent twenty years working as a
chartered surveyor in London. Since
moving back to Scotland, I have set up
my own tiling business, “Stickytiles”.
We are turning more to the European
model of tiling our bathrooms,
kitchens, conservatories in ceramic
and porcelain tiles. Natural stone such
as limestone, slate, marble, granite
has an ever increasing appeal.
Underfl oor heating which is easy to
install has the added advantage of being inexpensive to run.
There are waterproofi ng products to seal areas behind tiles,
particularly around showers and in wet rooms.
There are numerous tile retailers, product choice is vast and I The Lodge at
make it my business to help and advise customers, offering a free Kilmacolm cemetery
quotation. I have worked in is to be demolished
conjunction with a local artist because it “is
and it is possible to produce
considered to be
individually designed coloured
life expired and
glass tiles to most sizes and
is not in a sound
shapes. Why not have one
and watertight
or two cut into your existing
and habitable
bathroom tiling?
condition.”
I work quickly, putting in long
hours and always clean up
Inverclyde Council
as I go along - it’s a messy
has a shocking record of maintaining
business!
the property it is responsible for. Think
Call Hugh Murphy on 01505
of other Kilmacolm properties, the
873467 or 0753 356 5638
poor state of our community centre,
Email: hugh@stickytiles.co.uk
the slum-like state into which the
pavilion at the Birkmyre Park was allowed to deteriorate.
One of the few benefi ts of PPP schemes is the fact that the private partner,
During May I organised and hosted a summit in
not the Council, is responsible for maintaining the buildings. Arms length
the Scottish Parliament to discuss how best
companies set up by the Council have a similar effect. Council houses
to clinically and politically prioritise hospital
are now looked after by Riverclyde Homes and the refurbished Birkmyre
acquired thrombosis (HAT). I feel it is important
pavilion is the responsibility of Inverclyde Leisure. KNCC will be responsible
to draw this to the attention of Advertizer readers
for maintaining as well as building our new community centre. Perhaps
because HAT causes in excess of 3,000 deaths each
this is just as well because the sad fact is that maintenance budgets are
year in Scotland, yet the majority of these deaths
easy targets for Councils to hit because the effects of the cuts are not
could be prevented with a simple risk assessment. immediately obvious. Even this year before the effect of the credit crunch
It is the most common cause of hospital mortality had worked its way through, Inverclyde Council cut £100,000 from its central
and kills many times more patients than hospital- repairs budget. Public expenditure cuts in the near future will place massive
acquired infections. fi nancial pressure on Councils and there will be further temptation to cut
Professor Beverly Hunt of Lifeblood: ‘The Thrombosis Charity’ gave
maintenance budgets. This would be false economy and must be resisted.
a presentation at the summit, which was followed by a discussion
between MSPs, representatives from the Scottish Health Campaigns
Network, the Scottish Patients Association and local campaigners
Gordon and Jane McPherson.
This summit on hospital-acquired thrombosis forms part of my wider
campaigning into thrombosis. As you may know, I have lobbied fellow
MSPs, the Scottish Government and the NHS for some time on the
dangers of thrombosis, on behalf of my constituents Gordon and Jane
McPherson, who tragically lost their daughter to deep vein thrombosis.
I felt it was essential to arrange this event to help MSPs benefi t from
Lifeblood’s specialist medical knowledge.
I have been calling on the Scottish Government to take action to increase
awareness of thrombosis among the public and health professionals for
some time. We must also establish an effective prevention strategy for
thrombosis in Scottish hospitals, such as a risk assessment for every
patient. This would help save millions of pounds to the NHS budget that
is spent on treating patients who survive their clot, treating patients
who have complications following a clot and help avoid tragedies like
that of Katie McPherson.
I plan to hold another such
thrombosis summit in Parliament
once I meet with the Cabinet
Secretary for Health and
Wellbeing to discuss these serious
concerns. We must work hard to
ensure that people are aware of
the dangers of this virulent killer
and tackling it is taken seriously
by policy makers.
JUNE 2009 | send your NEWS & PHOTOS to info@advertizer.co.uk www.advertizer.co.uk | 01505 874385 | JUNE 2009 5
177_JUN09_04-09 GEN+COUNCIL.ind.indd 5 21/05/2009 23:33:37
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