EVENTS & NEWS
About this page: The NHS is ongoing headline news, with information about destructive changes, privatisations and critical reports issued on a daily basis. There are several excellent national websites and blogs providing rolling information and comment on developments. Our Hackney website doesn't attempt to duplicate this work - we focus on just a few very major developments together with a focus on local news and events. For more comprehensive coverage, see the links below:
Open Democracy : Our NHS
Keep Our NHS Public
NHS Support Federation
National Health Action Party
Open Democracy : Our NHS
Keep Our NHS Public
NHS Support Federation
National Health Action Party
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Hackney Devolution Pilot Business Plan
November 2017 Read Hackney's proposals here "Delivering improvements to health and wellbeing through health and social care" Integration Hackney Devolution Partners report, November 2017 KONP's initial response is given opposite. |
Hackney KONPs questions and concerns about the devolution business plan. Details here
Hackney KONP has significant concerns about the proposals for future health and social care services in the borough, including:
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PFI: How Come We're still Paying for This?
Launch of Marion Macalpine & Helen Mercer's photographic exhibition & PFI booklet at Portcullis House, Parliament. 20th March 2018 John McDonnell, Labour Shadow Chancellor Helen Mercer from People vs PFI |
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Naylor Report and Sell-off of NHS property and estates.
The Naylor Report of 2017 sets out proposals to sell off NHS property that is 'underused'. Naylor uses the Carter Review to decide what counts as 'inefficient use' - based on a crude measure of space used for clinical activities. So other use - like play rooms for children or facilities for visitors are 'inefficient'!. |
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December 2017: Support the legal challenge by Professor Allyson Pollock, Stephen Hawkins and others to replacing the NHS with commercial contracts for Accountable Care Organisations (ACOs).
Four renowned individuals are seeking a judicial review to stop Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt and NHS England from introducing new commercial, non-NHS bodies to run health and social services without proper public consultation and without full Parliamentary scrutiny. |
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Government proposals for the NHS: US-style Accountable Care Organisations (ACOs)
Government proposals will replace the publicly provided NHS with Accountable Care Organisations (ACOs) These are commercial, non-NHS bodies, which will run health and social services without proper public consultation and without full Parliamentary scrutiny. ACOs would be governed by company and contract law and can be given “full responsibility” for NHS and adult social services. ACOs were conceived in the US and are being imported into England although they are not recognised in any Act of Parliament. ACOs would be able to decide on the boundary of what care is free and what has to be paid for. They will be paid more if they save money. They can include private companies (e.g. Virgin in Frimley, Circle in Nottinghamshire), including private insurance and property companies, which can make money from charging. They could also include GP practices, in which case people on their lists would automatically transfer to the ACO in order to be entitled to services. New patients would also have to register with the ACO. They will be allowed to sub-contract all “their” services. In December 20217 ACOs are the subject of a legal challenge through judicial review. |
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Model letter to MPs from any party - ask friends and relatives to send a similar letter to their MP
The NHS tops the list of voters' concerns - and MPs will be aware there could be a new election at any time. It's a good time to demand action from MPs from all parties. Click above for a model letter protesting about STPs, funding cuts and NHS Reinstatement Bill, and asking MPs what they will do to support these aims |
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The General Election on 8th June 2017 with no overall majority has created a major opportunity to promote our demands.
The Tories are determined to make huge year on year cuts to NHS budgets and privatise services. The Labour manifesto pledged investment in the NHS and to:
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STPs - A Dagger Pointed At The Heart Of The NHS
The effects will be devastating, with the closure of beds, of key units including paediatric, maternity and cardiovascular and of whole A&E departments which are now bearing the brunt of the cuts elsewhere in the NHS. Entire hospitals will close in The Black Country and in Leicestershire, while many others including Cheshire and Merseyside will have ‘fewer beds’. Diane Abbott speaking in Westminster debate, 14 Sept 2016 (links to article & full speech in Huff Post) |
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Freedom of Information (FoI) request for NE London STP
Hackney KONP have requested detailed information about the version of the STP submitted to NHSE by 21 October 2016. Our previous FoI resulted in a meaningless summary of the June submission expressing healthy intentions. The October submission should give more details. STPs: a statement from HCT Conference with 150 health campaigners, Birmingham, 17 Sept 2016. Click to read this statement |
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Junior Doctors announce strike action protesting Government imposition of new contract
The Government's attempt to impose seven-day working without the resources to fund it. Current resources are insufficient to adequately fund the so-called five-day NHS. The mantra that the NHS must do more with less has become “the NHS must do much, much more with less”. |
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North East London Sustainability & Transformation Plan (STP) (aka Slash, Trash & Privatise plan). Still secret, by order of NHS England.
The local NE London plan is one of 44 covering all England. It is secret, by order of NHS England. The NE London plan involves three parts:
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NHAP: Over 28000 junior doctors cast their vote in the BMA's ballot about whether proposed industrial action over the proposed new proposed contract. The result was unprecedented and could not be clearer: 98% backed strike action, 99% backed some kind of industrial action in opposition to this contract. Junior doctors have been left with no choice but to take industrial action. The Government has not compromised on its crystal clear agenda to force junior doctors into working more hours for less pay, so that it can drive through its nonsensical "enhanced seven-day services" manifesto pledge in the face of a £22bn NHS efficiency savings program.
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Support the Junior doctors - picket outside Homerton Hospital Tuesday 26th & Wednesday 27th April
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Junior doctors strike - pickets outside Homerton Hospital
in protest about proposed new contract. Hackney KONP were there to support them. Next Action planned for 26th & 27th April 2016 Join pickets at Homerton Hospital from 8am |
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Don't privatise Homerton Hospital's pathology lab
Contractors building a new pathology lab at the Homerton have gone bust, leaving the Homerton with massive debts. There are huge questions to be answered about the contract with the builders - but most urgently, managers are now considering proposals to privatise the pathology services. Homerton pathology provides an excellent responsive and high quality service. Privatisation is a huge concern. Don't let them destroy our excellent local service. Sign the petition at the link. |
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Support NHS nurse training - save nursing bursaries.
The Tories plan to cut student nurses bursaries and replace them with loans. After August 2017 nursing courses will be fee paying, leaving students with more than £50,000 of debt if they undertake a three year degree. Saddling students with a lifetime of debt – which most of them will never be able to pay off – will massively deter those wanting to enter nursing and the other health professions covered by the bursary. It will affect people studying a range of professions including nursing, speech and language therapy, radiology, occupational therapy, mental health nursing and midwifery. - See more at: http://www.unitetheunion.org/campaigning/back-the-bursary-or-bust-campaign/#sthash.3uJVLt16.dpuf |
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Why it’s a problem that Labour didn’t show up to support the NHS Bill (National Health Action Party article, March 2016)
Three things MPs say about the NHS Bill - and why they are wrong CLIVE PEEDELL 25 March 2016 Open Democracy - Our NHS article |
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The NHS Bill second reading: Friday 11th March central London The is Bill sponsored by Caroline Lucas MP. Talked out by fillibustering Tory MP. But many campaigners made our views known.
9.45 am hand in petition at Richmond House, Whitehall 11-1.30 Rally outside Parliament |
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NHS cuts - are we in it together?
Open Democracy article CAROLINE MOLLOY 23 March 2016 Downing Street was accused by another former minister of “massaging” NHS cuts figures this week – just as locally NHS bosses propose more sweeping cuts that are beginning to look like the worst ‘reorganisation’ yet. ...... Cash-strapped local health bosses there have suggested that they may in future no longer fund a wide list of procedures on the NHS for many patients, including hearing aids, cataract ops, vasectomies, and hip and knee operations. |
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Junior doctors are fighting for the NHS's life - as the Tories try to silence ALL health workers.
Open Democracy article Greg Dropkin 10 November 2015 Picture opposite: Hackney KONP members supporting Homerton Hospital junior doctors on strike on 12th January 2016 |
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London NHS devolution - "It's obvious to all but gullible, power-grabbing councillors - this is about dumping blame for closures"John Lister 18 December 2015
Osborne's plans for London "devolution" look likely to lead to more hospital closures - and even less say for local people. |
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The NHS is headed for a devolution iceberg - whilst MPs argue about deckchairs Greg Dropkin 22 December 2015
As private firms gather in the Titanic Hotel to discuss the profit opportunities arising from NHS devolution, only a few MPs are raising concerns in parliament about the coming healthcare lottery for the rest of us. |
Report of Public Meeting on Tuesday 24th November
Hackney KONP Joint meeting with 38degrees No TTIP campaign - Restore the NHS
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership will make NHS sell-off irreversible. Campaign for the NHS Bill
Speakers: Professor Allyson Pollock and barrister Peter Roderick (authors of The NHS Bill); Linda Kaucher, TTIP specialist
Hackney KONP Joint meeting with 38degrees No TTIP campaign - Restore the NHS
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership will make NHS sell-off irreversible. Campaign for the NHS Bill
Speakers: Professor Allyson Pollock and barrister Peter Roderick (authors of The NHS Bill); Linda Kaucher, TTIP specialist
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MODEL MOTION SUPPORTING THE NHS BILL -
for trades unions, political parties, mumsnet, tweeting. Ask your friends and family to promote this Bill too. |
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England’s Health Secretary wants to make us all work as hard as the Chinese – and our doctors and nurses already know it
Caroline Molloy 6 October 2015 Open Democracy article. The Tories have been talking about the ‘global race’ for a few years now – but Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s unguarded comments have revealed that it’s a global race to the bottom. |
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We junior doctors must strike—but for the right reasons
Open Democracy: Our NHS article Neil Singh 6 October 2015 Our strike must make demands for broader systemic change in our health service—meaning better working conditions for all health workers, better care for our patients, and a rejection of privatisation—and couple itself to ongoing and future actions by other health workers. |
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Open Letter from Co-Chairs of KONP to Jeremy Corbyn. Sept 2015
All of us in Keep Our NHS Public (KONP) offer our congratulations on your decisive victory in the Labour Party leadership election ..... we are aware of your personal support for retaining our NHS as a publicly funded and provided service freely available to all who need it. We are also aware of your sponsorship of the KONP-supported NHS Reinstatement Bill which is awaiting its Second Reading in Parliament. Your election victory is therefore a welcome injection of optimism for those of us struggling to make the case for our beloved NHS in the face of Conservative determination to dismantle and privatise it. click here for full text |
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Jeremy Corbyn and Caroline Lucas were among MPs who sponsored the NHS Bill – based on the NHS Reinstatement Bill.
“It’s our NHS. Let’s not just protect it from being further destroyed but let’s take it back and ensure it’s completely publicly run and publicly accountable. Healthcare is a human right, not a privilege.” Jeremy Corbyn, March 2015 The Bill will have its second reading on 11 March 2016. Lobby your MP now to ensure this Bill has massive support at its second reading. |
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Govt NHS policy has one aim and one aim only: bring system to its knees so sell-off to friends can be sold as answer
Govt imposing £22 bn 'efficiency savings' (cuts) on NHS on top of £20 bn cuts of past 5 years. This is their game click above for link to National Health Action Party Twitter feeds click picture left for link to Chomsky on privatisations: You Tube video |
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Labour must clean up the mess it made with PFI, and save the health service 27th August 2015 Jeremy Corbyn
'We have a duty to implement the democratic will of our party and remove the toxic burden of the private finance initiative from our NHS' |
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Government proposes inquiry into moving to a 'pay NHS'
RICHARD GRIMES Open Democracy 15 July 2015 Last week the government quietly announced a review into the biggest political hot potato of all - and almost no-one noticed. |
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NHS privatisation soars 500% in the last year, finds in-depth new study Paul Evans 30 April 2015
Don't be misled by one line denials of NHS privatisation based on old figures. The first in-depth analysis of the true impact of Cameron's health Act paints a shocking picture. |
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Wed 22 April Hackney 2015 KONP
NHS election hustings 7pm, Halkevi Centre, 31-33 Dalston Lane, E8 3DF. Chair: Jim Kelly (Chair, Unite London & East) Speakers: Diane Abbott MP: Labour, Hackney North Dr Gary Marlowe (C&H CCG) click to see speech Heather Finlay: Green Party candidate Simon de Deney: Lib Dem Candidate Amy Gray: Conservative Brian Debus: TUSC |
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Day of action: Barts & The London PFI deal.
2.15pm Saturday 25th April 2015 Barts Health’s future is in the balance and this is our last chance to make a noise before the election. The Department of Health has 118 PFI schemes with a capital value of £11.6bn. Over time, the sum total of repayments will be £79.1bn. According to one calculation, two hospitals could have been built for the cost of just one, had public sources of finance been used. Barts and the London have a PFI valued at £1.1bn with repayments totalling £7.1bn. Come down to the Royal London Hospital on Whitechapel Rd for 2.15pm on Saturday 25th to welcome the open-top bus carrying the anti-PFI message. The bus is starting from Whipps Cross Hospital, going via Newham and then into Tower Hamlets to the Royal London Hospital (one of the main hospitals used by Hackney residents). Click here to sign the 38 degrees petition: |
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BMA: We believe that a publicly-funded, publicly-provided service delivers the best patient care
Support the British Medical Association campaign to defend the NHS from attacks by politicians of all major parties. Click above to support. |
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HACKNEY HUSTINGS where you can raise NHS issues:
Mon 20th April:7.30pm Rose Lipman Hall; 43 De Beauvoir Road, London N1 5SQ Thurs 23rd April: 7.30pm St John's Hoxton, Pitfield St; London N1 6NP Sun 26th April: 2-4pm, Arcola Theatre; Free but must book in advance via Hackney Citizen - click here |
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How Come We Didn't Know
A photographic exhibition by Marion Macalpine Highlighting the many different ways that healthcare corporations are taking over the NHS Marion is a Hackney resident and member of Hackney Keep Our NHS Public. This exhibition will be showing again on 16th - 27th June at The Brady Arts and Community Centre 192-196 Hanbury Street London E1 5HU Mondays to Thursdays 9am-8pm Fridays 9am – 6pm Saturdays 9 am – 5pm |
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NHS Reinstatement Bill presented to Parliament
The NHS Bill was presented in Parliament on 11 March 2015. MPs that supported the presentation of the Bill (and the additional MPs who attended the rally outside parliament) include Caroline Lucas from the Green Party; Andrew George and John Pugh from the Liberal Democrats; Labour’s Katy Clark, Jeremy Corbyn, Roger Godsiff, Kelvin Hopkins, John McDonnell, Michael Meacher and Chris Williamson; SNP’s Stewart Hosie, Angus MacNeil, Mike Weir and Eilidh Whiteford; and Plaid Cymru’s Hywel Williams. Email your General Election candidates to ask whether they will support this bill. (click link and give your postcode - it only takes a moment and we want to deluge all candidates with demands for support) |
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Michael Sheen denounces politicians who have betrayed the NHS:
Actor who played Tony Blair on screen accuses Labour of lacking conviction and joining the Conservatives in ‘systematically undermining’ NHS values Speaking at a St David’s Day march to celebrate the NHS and its founder, Aneurin Bevan, on Sunday, Sheen approvingly noted Bevan’s “burning hatred for the Tory party” and attacked Margaret Thatcher’s infamous claim there is no such thing as society. But his anger was also aimed at the timidity of Labour politicians and the party’s record in office. |
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Personal Health Budgets
Concerns mount as 'personal health budgets' are imposed on 10,000 chronically ill patients Caroline Molloy 13 March 2015 Patients across the country are to have their health funding rolled into their social care funding and be expected to manage both themselves. In Barnsley, Cheshire, Tower Hamlets, Hampshire, Portsmouth, Stockton and the South West of England, 10,000 patients with complex needs will be allocated a single ‘pot’ of money from which they will be expected to purchase both their health and their social care needs. The details vary by area but the main groups affected are older people with multiple health needs, children with disabilities, and people with diabetes, dementia, learning disabilities, or serious mental health problems. Hailed as 'empowerment' - the reality for most people will be far from that. |
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The billions of wasted NHS cash no-one wants to mention. Caroline Molloy 10 October 2014
There is one pot of NHS money that sits curiously unexamined, glistening and untouched - estimated at between £10bn and £30bn per year. It’s the cost of the NHS ‘market’ itself. The legal, financial and contracting costs of administering the hugely expensive artificial ‘marketplace’ created by successive governments to allow both NHS and private ‘providers’ to compete with each other to offer services to NHS and other ‘purchasers’. |
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At what cost? Paying the price for the market in the English NHS. Feb 2015
The recurrent, annual costs of the market can be estimated (conservatively) at £4.5 billion. It is possible to have patient choice and high-quality health-care without the market. This Feb 2015 report by Calum Paton, Professor of Public Policy at Keele University explains how. |
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People v Barts Health PFI Click above for more information about the campaign against the Barts PFI scheme |
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Tuesday 10th March 2015 7.30pm
Defend London's Health Service Public Rally: Hammersmith Town Hall, King St W6 9JU The Rally aims to make our demands to defend the NHS a key election issue. Bringing together people from across the capital including patients, health staff, campaigners and trade unionists can undermine divide and rule tactics of playing one hospital or service against another. Speakers include clinicians, campaigners and politicians serious about defending our NHS with more than warm words. Discussion will highlight campaigning action in the run up to the general election to win the fight to defend our health services. londonkeepournhspublic@gmail.com https://defendlondonsnhs.wordpress.com/ |
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A night of comedy at the Hackney Empire
28th March 2015 at 6.45pm With Stewart Lee, Wendy Wason, Francesca Martinez, Mark Steel, Lucy Porter, Rufus Hound, and a very special one off appearance from Spitting Image! More to come... Book tickets here: #nhsinstitches #standup4nhs |
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Median Road Resource Centre to be closed
Hackney Council have announced that Median Road Resource Centre will close at the end of this month (31 March 2015). The announcement surprised many Hackney residents who were not consulted over the specific decision to close the council-funded 37-bed care unit in Clapton. If you would like to attend a public meeting about Median Road, to which the council would be invited, please contact liz@healthwatchhackney.co.uk Brief background Median Road Resource Centre has provided respite and rehabilitation to many Hackney residents over the years. Until recently, the 37 bed unit provided: · interim (short term) beds to help people step down from hospital care or avoid unnecessary hospital admission; · care and reablement for people leaving hospital to help them regain independent living skills before returning home (intermediate care); · a dementia day care centre · residential respite beds The dementia day service was moved to Trowbridge Day Centre in spring 2014. In October 2014, the Median Road centre stopped accepting new admissions to its interim care beds. |
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Hinchingbrooke Hospital: collapse of UK's first privatised NHS hospital deal. Jan 2015
In January 2015, Circle announced that it is pulling out of its flagship contract to manage this former NHS hospital. The contract for a private healthcare provider to take over an NHS hospital was the first of its kind. Circle blames a £5 million loss- despite sacking many nursing staff to reduce staffing costs - and an NHS crisis. However Circle were also facing a highly critical CQC report on standards of care, patient safety and inadequate medical care. Read Caroline Molloy's excellent article about the collapse here. See Cambridge KONP's Facebook page here click here to read letter to the guardian from Hackney KONP's Marion Macalpine. |
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Pathfinder Trusts: NHS Mutualisation: privatisation with a cosy name.
"The biggest denationalisation of health services ever announced by a health minister" Richard Blogger 17 December 2014 More hospitals - potentially all of them - will be run outside the NHS as so-called "mutuals", the government announced in the week before christmas. The recently announced list of ‘pathfinder trusts’ to explore mutual status, includes seven FTs. Hinchingbrook Hospital - see above - was run as a 'mutual'. Read Richard Blogger's account to see what that meant - and Caroline Molloy's article above to see the disastrous results for the NHS, patients and staff. |
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NHS England Acted unlawfully in cutting funding to GPs
Save Our Surgeries campaigners have scored a significant victory against NHS England, as the High Court found in favour of east London patient Danny Currie on 25 November 2014. Danny, who has multiple health problems and uses a wheelchair, was represented by human rights lawyers Leigh Day, who argued that NHS England had ignored its duty to consult patients before making changes to funding that threatened to close his GP surgery. In a ruling reached without a hearing, Mr Justice Popplewell agreed that NHS had “acted unlawfully”, by failing “to make arrangements for the involvement of patients in primary care commissioning decisions as required by the National Health Service Act 2006”. Click for more information |
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NHS Reinstatement Bill 2015.
Written by Professor Allyson Pollock and barrister Peter Roderick. Leading NHS campaigners have come together to produce an NHS Reinstatement Bill which contains all the vital ingredients to stop and reverse NHS privatisation. And they want your views. Click here for Caroline Molloy's Open Democracy - Our NHS article on the proposed bill Click here to read the draft bill in full. click here for a link to the campaign for the bill and to e-mail your MP to ask for their support |
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Labour pledges and Efford's bill are a start - but won't restore our NHS.
7 Nov 2014. Labour MP Clive Efford published his bill which aims to reverse some of the main impacts of the Health & Social Care act. Click here to read this bill. The Bill is known as the National Health Service (Amended Duties and Powers) Bill, and is due to be debated in Parliament on 21 November. Athough a welcome start, this bill will not address the underlying problem of the purchaser-provider split and marketisation of the NHS. To abolish privatisation, we need to implement the Pollock-Roderick NHS Reinstatement Bill. KONP is campaigning for Labour to include all the elements of the Pollock-Roderick Bill in its own future programme. Click for more information. The TUC is currently supporting the Efford Bill. You may wish to contact the TUC Senior Policy Officer, Matt Dykes, on 02074671245 or 07747025983 or mdykes@tuc.org.uk to point out that the Efford Bill will not end the wasteful purchaser-provider split that results in billions being wasted on competitive tendering and money being siphoned off into private profit, and ask the TUC to campaign instead for the Pollock-Roderick Bill on www.nhsbill2015.org. Click here to read BMA comments on the Efford Bill Allyson Pollock, Peter Roderick and David Price have prepared a response to the Efford Bill. Click here to read this. |
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Hackney GP surgeries face closure
12 practices in Hackney face closure as a result of cuts to the Minimum Practice Income Guarantee (MPIG). These include the Lower Clapton Group Practice, Well Street Surgery and the Lawson Practice. The Lower Clapton Group training surgery will lose £250,000 – the equivalent of about four doctors’ salaries - starting with £35,000 this year, and rising in £35,000 increments until 2020. The phasing out of MPIG is particularly catastrophic because it is taking place against the backdrop of a freefall in funding for general practice, with many practices relying on the MPIG funding stream to simply survive. Click here for Save Our Surgeries Facebook page Click here to sign 38degrees petition to restore MPIG funding for GPs in deprived areas. Click here to see information about the campaign so far |
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Click for EU Citizen's campaign against TTIP
If TTIP passes, companies could sue our government if it passed laws to renationalise our NHS, or protect our health. This has already happened in other countries with similar deals. Slovakia was sued for trying to nationalise part of its healthcare service. And Australia is being sued for trying to introduce plain cigarette packets. TTIP isn't a hypothetical threat. It could destroy everything we've fought for. And it gets worse. If companies wanted to sue our government, they can do so in a secret court. There will be no public outcry about what they're trying to do because in most cases, we won't know it has happened until it's too late. This deal is so secretive, and the consequences so potentially far-reaching, that the Guardian labelled it 'a gunpowder plot against democracy'. If we don't get this deal debated in the open, we may never know the full scale of the havoc it could wreck. And we have to act now. Another round of negotiations is scheduled to happen next month. We have to make sure we can get a debate before much more progress is made. We're just 150,000 signatures short. Please sign the petition today and let's get TTIP out in the open. http://action.peoplesnhs.org/eu-ttip-debate |
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Billions wasted on legal and administrative costs of the NHS market
click link above to read Caroline Molloy's excellent article on Open Democracy. The current NHS budget is £120bn, of which nearly £17bn (14%) is spent on administration. Before the NHS used the market, administrative costs were only 5% - that's a difference of 9%. This enormous proportional increase is due to the expense of managing the split between 'purchaser' and 'provider', the bidding process and all the legal, accounting and administrative form filling that goes with a market. These administrative costs are set to increase as more and more NHS services are put out to tender. Removing the market and reducing administrative costs to previous levels would save £10.8bn per year - more than the total budget spent on GP services. |
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Launch of the People vs PFI campaign with conference on the 1st November 2014
The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) was cooked up by the government, banks and corporate accounting firms as way of making a profit by providing our public services. It's all about making massive private sector profits from the money WE pay for public sector services. And PFI debts are killing off our public services. For more about the campaign and how to put pressure on your MP, click here. Drop the NHS debt focuses on PFI in the NHS. The Department of Health has 118 PFI schemes with a capital value of £11.6bn. But over time the NHS - funded by the taxpayer - will make repayments of £79.1bn. New PFI buildings at Barts and the London cost £1.1bn, but will cost £7.1bn to repay. Campaigners from these two campaigns want to see prosecutions where there is evidence of corruption, and renegotiation of PFI deals that do not provide good value |
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Labour pledges on the NHS are a start - but will not save our NHS.
Labour looks set to go into the 2015 election with a pledge to increase NHS funding, reinstate Government's responsibility for providing a comprehensive National Health Service and reverse many of the worst effects of the ConDem Government's 2012 Health and Social Care Act. It's likely that Labour's proposals will be foreshadowed in Clive Efford MP's private member's bill - See above. Although Labour's statements to date are a welcome (though belated) start, they do not address the underlying problem of marketisation of NHS services, introduced by the Thatcher Government and promoted by successive Labour governments. To abolish privatisation and marketisation, we need to implement the Pollock Bill. Click for more info. |
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Proposals to introduce universal charges for NHS services
As part of its sustained campaign to privatise the NHS and implement insurance-based healthcare, the Government argues that the NHS is unsustainable. They conveniently ignore the wealth of evidence of money wasted on PFI schemes and market transaction costs. Meanwhile, think-tanks like Reform (funded by corporations with lucrative NHS contracts) are constantly firing off proposals to fund the 'unaffordable' NHS by charging for aspects of NHS care that are currently free: £10 for GP visits or missed appointments. The NHS Confederation has called for £75 per night 'hotel charges' for hospital stays while the Kings Fund - previously a well respected research body, but which relies on Government funding - has proposed a range of charges. Read Caroline Molloy's November 2013 article analysing government strategy on payments. |
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Charge seriously ill patients for NHS beds, proposes Kings Fund commission
Caroline Molloy 4 September 2014 Hidden amidst the aspirations on social care are some nasty precedents which could undermine the whole principle of free NHS care. The NHS should charge some critically ill patients for their NHS bed, suggests a report published today by Kate Barker for influential health policy lobbyists, the Kings Fund. The report also recommends considering ending free prescriptions for most pensioners and for people with long term conditions. “New recipients of what is currently defined as NHS Continuing Healthcare should meet their accommodation costs” says the report. NHS Continuing Healthcare is NHS care provided to people who are severely ill and either deteriorating or dying. And on prescriptions the Barker Commission suggests “medical exemptions and the low-income scheme would be abolished for all, including pensioners”. The controversial proposals are included in much-anticipated set of recommendations to radically transform health and social care provision and funding. The report will be being promoted heavily around the party conferences over the next month by the Kings Fund,who commissioned it. |
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Stop GP practice closures- petition:
Responsible department: Department of Health Over a hundred GP practices across the country face imminent closure and many more are likely to follow unless better support is given to them from the NHS. If these closures go ahead then this will be a disaster for the patients suddenly forced to find a new GP and will destabilise other neighbouring practices and the local NHS. Ministers must recognise this is a major problem and ensure that the NHS provides emergency support to help them restructure and protect their patients. The department must also ensure that it looks urgently into how it can provide more sustainable funding and support for GP practices to ensure that these vital services are not destroyed and they are able to continue providing high quality healthcare to their patients. |
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2014: the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP): a huge threat to NHS.
In early 2013 the American and EU governments began negotiating an agreement on free-trade between nations known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). This Trade Agreement is set to result in wholesale marketisation of European healthcare systems and irreversible entrenching of privatised healthcare in the British NHS. A supra-national Investor-to-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) is set to allow multinational corporations to sue national governments who try to restrict their access to NHS contracts. More info. Images from Occupy London's demonstration outside the Department for Business Skills and Innovation on Friday 12th September 2014 |
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Companies with links to Tories ‘have won £1.5bn worth of NHS contracts’
Matthew Taylor, Guardian 3 October 2014 Unite research claims 24 MPs and peers who backed health reforms have links to 15 private healthcare companies. Len McCluskey said around £12bn of former NHS services are now being run by the private sector. |
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How come we didn't know?
A photographic exhibition by Marion Macalpine exploring the role of global healthcare corporations in our NHS Exhibition launched, 7 May 2014 and will be on display in Brighton for three days in June. We are exploring ways to make this exhibition easily available to other campaign groups |
Information about current issues
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Draft campaign demands for 2014-15. Might we ask sitting & prospective MPs to pledge to support our demands as a condition of our support in 2015 elections? Click above for a link to some ideas for the campaign - not yet discussed or agreed by anyone.
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Hackney councillors' election pledge on NHS privatisation
In the run up to the May 2014 local council elections, Hackney KONP asked all candidates for local council elections to sign a pledge to oppose privatisation of the NHS and to campaign within their party for a publicly funded and publicly accountable NHS. Candidates from the Labour, Green and Trades Union and Socialist Parties agreed to sign the pledge and were invited to speak at our Hackney KONP meeting. Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors refused to sign. For a report of the meeting, click here. To see the wording of the pledge, click here. To see which candidates were elected in each ward, click here for the Hackney website Now the new council is in place with an increased Labour majority, and Jules Pipe (Lab) re-elected as Mayor, Hackney KONP will be watching closely to check that our elected representatives stick to their pledges to oppose NHS privatisation in all its forms. For an alternative view of the local election results, click here to read a Counterfire article |
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Links between MPs, Lords and former health ministers with private healthcare corporations, lobbyists and big pharma. Corruption at the heart of UK government.
Hundreds of MPs and Lords who have voted for NHS privatisation have direct financial ties with healthcare companies and will benefit directly from privatisation. Former government health ministers go on to take lucrative jobs and consultancies with healthcare corporations, advising on how to secure government contracts. And yet these financial gains are all perfectly legel. Many of us believe this reveals deep seated corruption at the heart of government - a far greater scandal than MPs expenses. See Social Investigation's detailed list of MPs and MEPs who have investments in private healthcare companies |
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Kings Fund suggests NHS fees - but is it really 'independent'?
Gary Walker 10 April 2014 The question of NHS 'affordability' is used by think tanks and politicians to browbeat us into accepting regressive changes that suit the few, not the many. Better options to save money are ignored. This Open Democracy article also exposes the lie behind the claim that health think-tanks are 'independent' when their funding comes from powerful vested interests. Who Funds You highlights funding behind a range of major think tanks. |
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Immigration Act 2014: what next for migrants' access to NHS care?
The passing of the Immigration Act earlier this month has put in place the legal framework for a new NHS charging regime for migrants in the UK. We look at what this means and, in particular, the implications for vulnerable migrants. May 27, 2014 BY Ruth Grove-White |
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People's Inquiry - London's NHS: Landmark Report Published April 2014
A landmark report on London's NHS has been published which highlights a cash strapped and fragmented health service – and proposes an 18-point plan to save the capital's NHS. The report, London's NHS at the crossroads, outlines an unravelling of services as the NHS becomes more fragmented and financially squeezed. This is coupled with a management vacuum at the strategic level – with the public having no real voice in decisions that affect them. Downloads: Executive Summary Full Report Unite for the NHS Newspaper |
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East London specialist cancer services closing
NHS England is pressing ahead with proposals to move five specialist cancer services from Barts Health to UCLH and cardiac services from the Heart Hospital to Barts Health. This will mean long journeys for cancer patients living in East and North London, and could threaten services at the Homerton Hospital. GPs and Secondary Care Doctors in East London are concerned that this move will have a number of unintended consequences which will jeopardise patient care and adversely affect recruitment and retention of staff throughout Barts Health. The post explains that 25 of those concerned signed a letter to Sir David Nicholson, outgoing Chief Executive of NHS England, asking him to put the proposals on hold until these issues have been resolved. The letter can be seen here. |
