After an outcry from many grassroots
activists including 350,000 signatures on a 38 Degrees petition, last month the government re-wrote
the NHS privatisation regulations that they were trying to sneak through
parliament. However, further expert opinion has made clear that the revised
regulations are just as bad, although Conservative ministers
have changed some of the wording in order to get Lib Dem coalition partners to
support them.
Following campaigning, there will now be a (highly unusual) vote in
the House of Lords on 24th of April, in which Peers could vote to overturn
these regulations altogether. Campaigners are calling for the government should
go back to the drawing board until they can come up with something in line with
what Ministers promised.
WHAT CAN WE DO NOW?
1.Print out the attached leaflet
and distribute it as widely as you can (feel free to amend / add your groups
logo)
2.Use the links below to contact
Peers to ask them to vote against the NHS Privatisation Regulations on 24th
April.
3.Ask others to do the same (you
could also use the attached template letter to your local paper)
WHY IS THIS SO IMPORTANT?
The regulations (made under Section
75 of the Health & Social Care Act) still require all NHS services
to be put out to competition unless the commissioners can prove there is nly
one provider capable of delivering them. Far from putting competition ‘back
in its box’ as some have suggested, these regulations roll out the red carpet
to it and will lead to a massive, expensive and damaging extension of
privatisation in the NHS.
Campaigners are calling on everyone
to give some time to doing this if you want the NHS to stay the kind of
institution we love, rather than a profit-seeking business where health is a
commodity which is bought and sold.
CONTACTING PEERS
There are several template
letters you can use to contact members of the House of Lords (particularly Lib Dem and Crossbench peers, and Bishops) to ask them to
reject these undemocratic changes:
Keep Our NHS Public has two
template letters, one for Lib Dems and one for cross benchers
The TUC’s ‘Adopt a Peer' tool helps you write letters and emails directly.
Save Lewisham’s Hospital’s site includes an extremely useful list of
target peers with specific health interests, and their contact details
You can also find further contact
details at They Work For You (to email a
specific peer), and a list of all email addresses for all Lib Dem peers,
crossbencher and bishops, on the National Health Action Party website here.
Make sure your letter gets
read!
- Personalise the letters at the beginning as much
as you can
- Send letters rather than emails if possible, since some peers
will not use emails. The address is Houses of Parliament, Westminister SW1A
0AA. Most powerful of all, if you have time, could be a handwritten letter (or
handwritten covering note).
What about MPs?
The Regulations can in theory be
defeated in either House. It is less likely in the Commons, but it is
still worth asking your MP to sign Early Day Motion 1188. If your MP has refused to sign, and you are concerned about their
arguments, do have a look at the David Lock QC links, below.
WANT MORE INFORMATION?
This cartoon brilliantly explains what
our NHS could look like, especially if we don't overturn these regulations. The
artist has kindly given permission for this to be used for campaign purposes,
please contact carolinejmolloy[at]gmail.com if you would like a high resolution
file to use.
Professor Bob Hudson highlights why
the Section 75 regulations are the key battle ground in the NHS here.
David
Lock QC has also written further comments on the government response to this
legal advice, here.
Read the criticism of the revised
regulations from the Lords scrutiny committee here, and a summary of it here.
And criticism from a wide range of
experts, here.
You can download a draft letter to send to local papers here, and a leaflet here.
With thanks to Keep Our NHS Public
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