999 call for the NHS

Over the last few days I've been writing about the 999 call for the NHS march that is coming through Northampton on the evening of Monday 1st September and leaving Northampton for Bedford on Tuesday 2nd September.

If you cannot make the march, there are lots of ways that you can help. One thing you can do is to write to your MP and ask them to support  Clive Efford MP's private member's bill (NHS amended duties and powers).
To:-
• stop the Privatisation of the NHS,
• restore the legal duty of the Secretary of State for Health to provide National Health Services,
• amend the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to remove the competition requirements,
• amend the ability to provide private health services,
• amend the provisions of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 relating to Monitor,
• repeal Section 75 Regulations.

If you live ing Northampton South you can email Brian Binley MP on brian.binley.mp@parliament.uk
and if you live in Northampton North you can email Michael Ellis on michael.ellis.mp@parliament.uk

If you contact your MP, make it clear that you live in their constituency and try and write even just one sentence about why you are concerned about the NHS.

If you're on social media use the following hashtags:
#‎999MarchNorthants‬
#999callfornhs
#darlomums

You can find more information about the Northampton events here

For those who don't think that cuts in the NHS are happening in the here and now...

 

Earlier in the year, the Chronicle and Echo reported proposed job losses of almost 250.

Proposals included:

- support staff, such as medical secretaries at risk. The list is also believed to include a handful of consultants.

- The plan to replace band 6 staff nurses with cheaper, less experienced band 5 staff, or else ask for volunteers to drop to the lower grade.

Critically, the proposals included no plans to consult with the public

As with some many things like this the devils is in the detail. To find out a little more I put in a freedom of information request for the equality impact assessments (EqIA) for the proposals

The EqIA's provided range from ones which seemed to be ammended in handwriting to others which were blank. Hardly the signs of a process that was being robustly considered.

A few months later and we have the scandalous debacle of hospital scientists wanting to work being locked out of their own workplace in a dispute over pay. This meant that patients were left high and dry with out blood tests and results as a result of heavy handed management strategies which prevented staff in the department going to work.

 

If you don't think that there's a need to shine a spotlight on changes in the NHS, it's time to think again.  Find out more about how to support the #999MarchNorthants , part of the #darlomums campaign here. In brief, you can help 

• by marching the Market Harborough to Northampton or Northampton to Bedford legs of the march, even if you just do a little bit
• coming to the rally outside All Saints Church on Monday 1st September at 5.30pm
• coming to the Dostiyo Centre at 52 Dunster Street, Northampton after 6.45pm and meeting marchers and sharing a vegetarian meal with them (solidarity cost to non-marchers £2)

#‎999MarchNorthants‬

The deep felt concern over the NHS is a national passion and something I have written about here a couple of years ago. It's shocking that so much has changed in the NHS over the last few years with so little awareness of the changes and the impact that privatisation and selling off services have had. Quite incredibly there have been ward closures and lucrative contracts sold off to off shore bidders without much of a murmour NHS workers in general practice, in hospiatls and out in the community have seen their resources in real terms shrink whist at the same time experiencing a systematic onslaught by goverment, but the media and big business in an operation to erode trust.

This is why I'm so pleased to see the 999 call for the NHS campaign. The plan of marching across the country to support the NHS has already attracted a lot of national publicity. It's even more significant for me because it is an intiative that has been set up by a group of women just concerned about their families and their future without the support of the national health service that they have previously enjoyed.

I'm even more pleased that the campaign is coming to my town of Northampton on the evening of Monday September 1st. From what I hear, they will be coming into town at about 5.30pm and having  a rally on the square outside All Saints Church. Why don't you come and join them and show your support for the NHS. You can find out more about the campaign and the march to Bedford on Tuesday September 2nd here.