Privatisation of the NHS

Not content with being roundly defeated the last time they tried it - this evil bunch of Ba**ards are trying it yet again through the back door. For those who have a care for the NHS, please sign this petition.

Geoff

Dear Geoff,

A new fight over NHS privatisation has just begun. Jeremy Hunt is trying to use new powers, hidden within last year's controversial NHS laws, to force local GPs to privatise more health services. [1] This is one of the things we were afraid might happen - and now our worst fears are being confirmed. We need to do all we can to stop it.

Jeremy Hunt's new privatisation plot is contained within "NHS competition regulations". [2] Usually these kinds of rules get quickly rubber-stamped by Parliament. This time, we need to get MPs and Lords to stand up to Hunt and block his plans. [3]

It’s a long shot, but we have a chance of stopping these changes because Hunt is breaking promises made to MPs when NHS laws were voted through last year. [4] If we generate a huge, public outcry to put pressure on the politicians who clung on to those promises last time the government attacked our NHS, we can convince them to stop these new laws.

Sign the petition against Jeremy Hunt's new NHS privatisation plan here – we’ve got just a couple of days before we’ll need to deliver it:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-section75

Hunt's new regulations (Statutory Instrument 257 under Section 75 of the Health & Social Care Act 2012) are like a catalogue of our worst fears. [5] GPs would have to open up every part of local health services to private companies, whether or not it’s what they or local people want. It would speed up the break up of the NHS, giving profit-hungry companies new rights to muscle in.

Last year, the government promised it wouldn’t go as far as forcing privatisation on local health services. Lots of MPs and Lords said these promises convinced them to vote for the NHS law. Now, we need to go back to these same MPs and Lords, and tell them to find some backbone. If they really voted for the law because of those promises, now they’ve got no excuse not to put a stop to Hunt’s latest privatising move.

Let’s build a petition to hand in to each of the MPs and Lords who believed the government’s promises on privatisation:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-section75

All over the country, 38 Degrees members have been working together to convince their local NHS decision makers to do the right thing and limit privatisation in their area. Now, government is trying to take that power away from local doctors and the patients they serve.

This is going to be tough. It could be the start of the second round of the fight to protect everything that’s precious about the NHS. But it’s the right thing to do, because we know that when private companies move in, all too often it doesn’t end well for patients.

Sign the petition now:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-section75


Thanks for being involved,

Ian, Becky, Alex and the rest of the 38 Degrees team

Re: Privatisation of the NHS

signed and sent UJ

Re: Privatisation of the NHS

Signed and sent Uncle Joe - not sure if they'll accept a Manxie signing it though!

Re: Privatisation of the NHS

done.

Re: Privatisation of the NHS

UPDATE:

I received the following as an email from Caroline Lucas MP, my local MP earlier today.



Dear all,

Further to our previous correspondence about protecting the NHS I wanted to let you know about recent action I have taken as your MP.

Under Section 75 of the Health & Social Care Act, the Government wants to force virtually every part of the NHS to be opened up to “compulsory” competitive markets, open to the private sector. In order to do this, secondary legislation needs to be approved by Parliament and will become law by April 1st unless enough MPs object.

According to Keep Our NHS Public, the regulations before Parliament create requirements for virtually all commissioning done by the National Commissioning Board (NCB) and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to be carried out through competitive markets, which will have the effect of forcing through privatisation regardless of the will of local people. They contain legal powers for Monitor to enforce the privatisation spontaneously or at the request of private companies which lost bids.

Usually regulations like these are not debated or voted upon – unless enough MPs object. I have started the process of trying to get the relevant statutory instrument stopped in its tracks. The technical way of doing this to ‘pray’ against the regulations, which is like putting down an Early Day Motion that other MPs can also sign. I did this yesterday and the EDM is here: http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2012-13/1092

I am calling on my MP colleagues to sign the EDM and please do also spread the word amongst your friends and family members who live outside of Brighton and Hove. The more MPs that sign, the more chance there is of overturning the proposed regulations. This is a last opportunity to stop the NHS being turned into a competitive market.

I appreciate your strong support to date for protecting the NHS and hope you will agree with this action I am taking. Do let me know if you need any further information.



Best wishes,

Caroline

Re: Privatisation of the NHS

Signed and sent.

Re: Privatisation of the NHS

Hi Joe, I am going to sign however PFI has already resulted in many hospitals owing billions that they may never be able to pay back.

It has also be proven that private companies can bring Trusts, teetering on the brink, not only back into the black but offering a service that is superior to other Trusts.

So can we have NHS with good management?

Re: Privatisation of the NHS

So why sign it if you don't believe in it? You are spot on when you complain about PFIs, and it is my belief that the indiscriminate use of PFIs by the last government rabble did more to destroy the financial base of the NHS that the present rabble could ever do. As you say, what we need is good management, but one that relies on good practice and common sense regardless of political dogma.

This 38degrees shower are just looking for any old populist fight now just to justify their existence and I'm sure they don't know the intracasies of what they are fighting for half the time...

Re: Privatisation of the NHS

UPDATE:

Received the enclosed email from 38 degrees this evening.



It’s working. It looks like Jeremy Hunt is already feeling the pressure of our huge, people-powered opposition to his NHS privatisation plot. The Telegraph is reporting that “an outcry from medical groups, MPs and campaigners against privatisation in the NHS has forced a re-think”. [1]

And that’s hardly surprising - 130,000 of us signed the petition against the changes in just 24 hours. Thank you. But we haven’t won yet. Over the next few hours, Hunt will be deciding whether or not he can hold out in the face of a public outcry. Now we need to ramp up the pressure by making sure the petition continues to grow fast.

Can you help keep the pressure on Jeremy Hunt by sharing the petition with your friends and family? Please press forward on this email and ask them to click here to sign:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-section75

Re: Privatisation of the NHS

Further Update:



Dear Geoff,

It’s being called backdoor NHS privatisation. And if we want to stop it, what happens in Parliament this week is crucial. Some Labour, Lib Dem and Green MPs have tabled a motion demanding the NHS privatisation plan be immediately withdrawn. [1] So far only 72 MPs have signed up. [2] We need to make that number grow, and quickly.

In the last few hours, the legal advice paid for by thousands of 38 Degrees members’ donations has come in. The verdict seems clear. If the government forces through these new NHS privatisation rules, it will mean ministers breaking promises they made last year when they said doctors wouldn't be forced to privatise everything. [3]

We’ve got the proof we need to show MPs that the government is breaking the promises made when the NHS law was forced through. Now we need to make sure every MP reads it, to convince them to sign the motion demanding these new privatisation rules are stopped.

If MPs hear from thousands of us we can make sure that they sign up to block backdoor privatisation. Can you click here to send an email asking them read our legal advice and oppose the plans?
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-broken-promises

The government says their ‘modernised’ NHS is supposed to be about giving more control to local doctors and communities. But under Jeremy Hunt’s new regulations, the government will force GPs to open up every part of local health services to private companies – whether or not it’s what they or local people want.

And it’s not just us saying this. On Sunday, the Observer newspaper reported an explosive letter from the head of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges to the health minister, outlining concerns that “healthcare will be disrupted and hospital services damaged as a result of time-consuming, disruptive and unnecessary tendering processes,” and that these new regulations are “at odds” with reassurances previously given to doctors. [6]

These are hardly the voices of radicals or political opportunists – so what’s it going to take for MPs to sit up, take notice and admit that something’s not right here? Let’s seize this moment and ask our MPs to listen to doctors, patients, legal experts and concerned constituents, before they make a big mistake:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-broken-promises

We can stop this now, if we try. In the past week we've grown our rapid-response petition to over 230,000 signatures. We’ve chipped in to pay for expert legal advice. Now let’s make the talk in the halls of Parliament on Monday be about how many voters are getting in touch about these broken promises. Together, we can help those wavering MPs to find some backbone, and help even the diehard supporters of privatisation to realise the game is up.
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-broken-promises


Thanks for using your voice,

David, James, Hannah and the 38 Degrees team


NOTES
[1] The motion was originally tabled by Green MP Caroline Lucas, but then re-tabled co-sponsored by Lib Dem Andrew George and Labour leader Ed Miliband.
[2] You can see the motion, and the latest signatures, here: http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2012-13/1104
[3] For example, Andrew Lansley sent a letter to prospective CCGs on 16th February 2012, during the height of the battle to get the Bill through parliament, in which he assured them, “I know many of you may have read that you will be forced to fragment services, or to put services out to tender. This is absolutely not the case." See http://www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/...t-needs-prayer
[4] https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-...5-legal-advice
[5] Telegraph: Scrap NHS competition rules say 1000 in letter to Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/he...Telegraph.html
[6] Guardian: Doctors bemoan NHS privatisation by stealth http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/20...ion-by-stealth