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NHS Reforms.
Oct. 11th, 2011 09:50 amAs you know, I try not to bring my politics into my journal, but today I really really want to urge any UK people who follow me to PLEASE sign this emergency petition regarding proposed changes to the National Health Service. It takes all of 30 seconds. The internet campaign group 38 Degrees have done so much great work for the campaign (and others like it). This is a petition that will get delivered in person, as they have with past NHS petitions, and they really do make a difference.
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/nhs-message-to-the-lords#petition
Tomorrow the hugely controversial and un-democratic Health and Social Care Bill will be debated by the House of Lords and it is our last chance to call a halt or at least have it referred to committee so certain aspects can be properly scrutinised, in particular the frightening abdication of responsibility by the Secretary of State for Health to provide a free comprehensive health service. Once this is gone, the government can farm health services out to whoever they want and have no accountability when quality of care inevitably suffers.
The Health and Social Care Bill is opposed by the British Medical Association (the umbrella organisation for UK doctors and medical professionals), it is opposed by the Royal College of Nurses, by the healthcare trusts, the Trade Unions (including the main public sector union with over a million members), and this morning The Daily Telegraph (not exactly a left wing publication) is reporting that the medical Royal Colleges have now joined opposition to the bill, making the opposition clear from top to bottom.
Professor Sir Neil Douglas, Chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, said: “Across the medical profession there are continuing concerns that the Health and Social Care Bill could damage patient care. All the Medical Royal Colleges and Faculties representing the whole medical profession have come together to support this clear statement of our anxieties.
Today 60 leading clinicians also wrote to The Independent newspaper to express their opposition. This is in addition to the 400 public health experts who wrote to the Daily Telegraph last week to say that the reforms would cause the NHS "irreparable harm".
When the NHS was founded in 1948, one of its founders, Nye Bevan, famously said that "the NHS will last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it". I think if there was ever a time to fight for it, it is now. The NHS is not for sale. Please sign and make your voice heard when the Lords debate the future of our Health Service tomorrow.
Nye Bevan opens Park Hospital in Manchester in 1948. The first 'free' NHS hospital
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/nhs-message-to-the-lords#petition
Tomorrow the hugely controversial and un-democratic Health and Social Care Bill will be debated by the House of Lords and it is our last chance to call a halt or at least have it referred to committee so certain aspects can be properly scrutinised, in particular the frightening abdication of responsibility by the Secretary of State for Health to provide a free comprehensive health service. Once this is gone, the government can farm health services out to whoever they want and have no accountability when quality of care inevitably suffers.
The Health and Social Care Bill is opposed by the British Medical Association (the umbrella organisation for UK doctors and medical professionals), it is opposed by the Royal College of Nurses, by the healthcare trusts, the Trade Unions (including the main public sector union with over a million members), and this morning The Daily Telegraph (not exactly a left wing publication) is reporting that the medical Royal Colleges have now joined opposition to the bill, making the opposition clear from top to bottom.
Professor Sir Neil Douglas, Chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, said: “Across the medical profession there are continuing concerns that the Health and Social Care Bill could damage patient care. All the Medical Royal Colleges and Faculties representing the whole medical profession have come together to support this clear statement of our anxieties.
Today 60 leading clinicians also wrote to The Independent newspaper to express their opposition. This is in addition to the 400 public health experts who wrote to the Daily Telegraph last week to say that the reforms would cause the NHS "irreparable harm".
When the NHS was founded in 1948, one of its founders, Nye Bevan, famously said that "the NHS will last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it". I think if there was ever a time to fight for it, it is now. The NHS is not for sale. Please sign and make your voice heard when the Lords debate the future of our Health Service tomorrow.
