Inquests, High Court judgments, reports from HM Inspector
of Prisons, Medical Justice, and the UK Border Agency’s own inspectorate have all exposed healthcare failings in UK immigration detention centres, but change is
a long time coming.
A doctor urges fellow child health practitioners to speak up for the benefits of social protection policy, and to measure, evaluate and bear witness to the impact of NHS 'reform' on child health.
British hospitals are being encouraged to sell their services abroad. But Healthcare UK, created to oversee this move into the foreign market, won't reflect the real NHS 'brand', rooted as it is in the human right to health.
Richard Branson's Virgin Group is lead sponsor of tomorrow's London Marathon. It's “a national institution” says Virgin. “The atmosphere and camaraderie is like nothing else.” One medical student running in the Marathon doesn't like what Virgin is doing to another much-loved national institution.
The legislation opening up England's health service to marketisation should never have been passed. The so-called serious media did not hold the government to account, analyse its intent, fully report public opposition or cover the response of medical professionals in what will prove to be a profound failure of British democracy that ranks with the Iraq war.
The coalition’s
Health and Social Care Bill is enacted despite deep public unease and unprecedented
opposition from medical professionals. Campaigners fight on
Cameron is leaving no stone unturned in his 'revolution' of the public sector. This is not about the privatisation of individual services: a bigger game is being played, with profound importance for Britain and her people.
More than one in four Conservative peers - 62 out of the total of 216 - and
many other members of the House of Lords have a direct financial interest in
the radical re-shaping of the NHS that is perilously close to being enacted.
These peers have been able to vote on the crucial divisions that will determine
the immediate and long-term future of the NHS and the coalition’s Health and
Social Care bill.
The rebranding of Britain's Assura Medical as 'Virgin Care', "health management company", is a grim indicator of the future for the NHS. Wendy Savage reflects on the cheerful Richard Branson's attempt to cash in on the 'marketisation' of England's National Health Service.
The author of 'The Plot Against the NHS' discusses the political struggle over England's national health service and considers what those determined to save it can still do.