RESOURCES
Here is a selection of resources, articles and links highlighting major issues for the NHS campaign. You will find many more important articles on websites listed in the Links section.
- Private Finance Initiative (PFI), Naylor report, firesale of NHS property and a new wave of Public Private Partnerships
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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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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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TLS article about the evolution of the NHS - and brilliant account of politicians' plans to destroy it.
End of the NHS? RAYMOND TALLIS The National Health Service is an extraordinary institution, born out of extraordinary circumstances, brilliantly captured by Ann Leonard, a campaigner with the organisation Keep Our NHS Public: The aftermath of the Second World War saw a moment of political emancipation in Britain. A population, already united in a life and death struggle over five years, maintained the momentum of battle and a sense of social solidarity to establish the Welfare State. For the first time in history, the well-being of the whole population became the explicit concern of the State, through the will of the people. Read on: |
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Sell off:
watch the trailer (click left) for the brilliant new Peter Bach film about NHS privatisation or (click right) watch the full movie. |
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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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Leigh Day & Co Solicitors have a great record challenging decisions to cut services. click for link to their helpful guide for campaigners:
Before making a decision to cut or reduce a public service most public bodies must:
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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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Sell Off: trailer for Peter Bach film about NHS sell off November 2014
Published on Oct 11, 2014 Trailer for the film Sell Off |
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Sell Off. The full movie, by Peter Bach 2014
Published on Oct 11, 2014 Corporate interests rather than patient care is driving reform in today's NHS and will divert money away from YOU. And the media are failing to tell you this. This film is radical. With over a dozen NHS insiders as my witnesses, I will tell the alarming story of how the health service as we know it is being quietly abolished. Almost without our noticing, it’s been replaced by a system modelled on the US in which care is delivered by profit-maximising companies that charge patients for treatment which is anyway to be restricted and reduced. One medical reporter the filmmaker knows claims that health reporting today is so poor because few journalists have real sources inside the NHS. Well, this film will have a riot of medical sources - including one professor, two consultant radiologists, a cancer expert, a public interest lawyer, and several outspoken GPs. What they all have to say will be shocking, unusual and brave. Our doctors will really strike back in this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ultKvnw2h3Q |
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HOW COME WE DIDN'T KNOW? PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION
BY MARION MACALPINE The exhibition includes twenty photographs and brief information highlighting some of the major corporations involved in privatisation of the NHS. The exhibition explores the diverse forms that privatisation takes, including PFI contracts; private health companies masquerading as NHS including many GP clinics and diagnostic centres; private hospitals which cherry-pick ‘low risk’ patients; lucrative contracts for highly specialist treatment; healthcare corporations with a history of fraud or tax avoidance; scandalously poor care practice that is no barrier to winning new contracts; private corporations driving government policy and involved in negotiations such as the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. The exhibition also highlights some critical links between politicians at all levels and private healthcare corporations. If you are interested in using this exhibition for your campaigning, email [email protected] |
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MAY 2014 VIEW OR DOWNLOAD HACKNEY KONP CAMPAIGN LEAFLET
Government changes are tearing our NHS apart To see our campaign leaflet explaining how our NHS is being privatised, click here. Feel free to download and amend it for your campaigns. |
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How the NHS is being privatised by stealth
The role of successive governments and health corporations Interview with Dr Lucy Reynolds of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine |
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KEEP OUR NHS PUBLIC (KONP) - KEY ARTICLES FROM THE NATIONAL KONP WEBSITE
NB the articles and information gathered in this section represent the views of the authors, but may not necessarily represent the views of all supporters and signatories of the Keep Our NHS Public campaign. KONP Introduction for Campaigners A guide aimed both at those who are new to Keep our NHS Public and NHS campaigning, and those who have more experience. It aims to cover the main issues facing the NHS - how we got here, where we are now, and where we might be going - and to give you confidence to talk to local health decision makers, the media, fellow campaigners, patients and the general public about what is going on. KONP Group Briefings For KONP groups to circulate to their members to then decide what actions they will take How does the NHS compare?
Open Democracy: Key NHS Campaigns
Open Democracy's Our NHS is primarily a publishing project but they work closely with a wide array of NHS campaign groups - both national and local - to support their work with high quality information, stories and research, and help co-ordinate action. Campaign aims that OurNHS supports include: Stop the Hospital Closure Clause Stop NHS cuts and closures Stop NHS privatisation Restore Government duty to secure a comprehensive health service in England Say no to NHS charges and insurance Stop the sell off of NHS assets and buildings Sort out the mess that is Foundation Trusts Make sure international trade treaties don't affect our health services Keep the NHS safe and properly staffed Be properly informed about medical data and confidentiality. |
Billions wasted on market costs - buying and selling NHS services. Caroline Molloy article in Open Democracy
Proud of the NHS? Then fight for it! People's Assembly : excellent summary article
Demands for the NHS: a draft document for 2014-15 leading up to general election in 2015. For discussion
Renationalisation of the rail services? Why not start with the NHS? David Zigmond
Labour is flirting with the idea of renationalising the railways - but it should start by renationalising the NHS The NHS is on the brink: can it survive till May 2015?
Jeremy Hunt's main task is to keep the health service out of the news until the election. Tories are praying he succeeds. Polly Toynbee article: Guardian, 9 May 2014 How our NHS is being privatised: what’s happened so far and what’s coming next
A brief overview of privatisation to date and what we can expect in the coming period. How to Create the Conditions for a Healthcare Market: The Step-by-step Marketisation of the NHS in England by Nick Krachler
Nov 14th 2013 An Outline of Marketisation Processes in the English NHS On The Basis of Marketisation Theory. Detailed overview The health hurricane: a year of destruction in the NHS
Alex Nunns looks at the gale of privatisation, sell-offs and cuts in services blowing through the health service (Red Pepper/ NHS Support Federation)) February 2013 Why we need a political campaign to reinstate the NHS in England
Allyson Pollock and David Price 28 March 2013 Should Peers be able to vote on health reforms that affect their financial interests? Click above for May 2014 link to Open Democracy article by Andrew Robertson.
A new list of Peer's financial interests in healthcare-related companies raises eyebrows again. Is declaring their interests enough, or - like councillors - should they be banned from voting on issues that might affect their financial interests? Care.data. Government proposals to sell off medical information
Care.data questions mount - just who'll get our medical data? Open Democracy article by Jane Fae 6 February 2014 Official attempts to inform patients about what will happen to their data when the new care.data database is implemented are inadequate and, on the latest evidence, seriously misleading. NHS confederation
By no means a radical body - however this resource give some very useful statistics, including international comparisons highlighting how the NHS is significantly underfunded compared with most comparable countries. Figures show extent of NHS reliance on foreign nationals
11% of all staff and 26% of doctors are non-British. Statistics from the Guardian show the extent to which the NHS relies on migrant staff. The Immigration Bill: RSM 2014 article by Sarah Steele, David Stuckler, Martin McKee and Allyson M Pollock. 'the Immigration Bill is likely to increase costs,worsen staffing issues, and pose threats to public health, then why are politicians pursuing it? The Bill can only be understood in its political context'.
Immigration Bill passes through Commons
The progress of another punitive Bill which strips away legal protection from migrants and will increase homelessness, ill health and destitution, seems for now to have tri-partisan support. February 2014 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 Charges for migrants and visitors set precedent for wider assault on Britain’s NHS
NHS Fightback article, January 2014 Procurement Regulations associated with S75 of the Health & Social Care Act 2012
David Lock QC What is wrong with the government’s NHS Procurement Regulations? NHS Procurement Regulations - click here for link to Regulations. Rare Good News for the NHS: Government Accepts Lords Amendment Removing Hospital Closure Clause from Care Bill Click link above to this Andy Worthington article
More than a third of GPs on commissioning groups have conflicts of interest, BMJ investigation shows BMJ 2013; 346
A March 2013 BMJ article highlighting financial ties between GP commissioners and private healthcare corporations they may be purchasing Does UKIP want to privatise the NHS?
handy information for anyone who needs to convince a UKIP voter that their party will push privatisation of the NHS! User Fees
The RAND Health Insurance Experiment, the largest and most rigorous study of user fees to date, found that the more patients had to pay for care, the less they used it.[6,7] Less care led to lower costs, but it didn’t mean greater efficiency, because sometimes people received fewer services when they actually needed more. Patients did reduce their use of less-effective care, but there was a decrease in the use of effective care as well.[7] The RAND findings also showed that the proportion of inappropriate hospital stays and admissions was the same with or without user fees.[8] Click here for article A warning from the US about the shocking impact of private health insurance
Surprise $117,000 Medical Bill From Doctor He Didn’t Know................. |
FILMS ON THE HISTORY AND THE POLITICS OF THE NHS
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OUR CAMPAIGN IN THE MEDIA
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