Leaked video footage: Andrew Lansley on the run

Thanks to Eoin Clarke for sharing this. As he writes:

 

'This is a leaked video of Lansley's visit to the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London, today. I had reported earlier on in the day that there had been an incident at the hospital but no national media outlet would run with the story.  When the Minister for Health runs scared from medical professionals such as the doctor shown in the picture you know that his faith in Tory reforms must be limited indeed, if he cannot have the courage of his convictions to stand and discuss the issues.'

  

Dr Ron Singer, who challenges Lansley here, is a recently retired GP with three decades' experience and President of the Medical Practitioners' Union (part of Unite).

 

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UK Uncut: NHS protest in Newcastle joined by Billy Bragg

Pictures and video footage of today's UK Uncut protest in Newcastle, which was part of a national day of action opposed to cuts and privatisation in the NHS.

Images: Andrew Gray Video: Tony Dowling and Andrew Gray

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Chicken Clegg: victory for anti-cuts campaigners in Newcastle!

Newcastle is now a Clegg Free Zone

This comes via the popular Facebook Event page for Thursday's protest at Nick Clegg's planned Newcastle visit.

I'll just flag up the appeal to participate in Saturday's UK Uncut protest in Newcastle. It's part of a national day of action for the NHS: meet at Grey's Monument at noon.

'The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has pulled out of his keynote speech ‘rebalancing the economy’ at the IPPR regional conference this Thursday. Coming on the back of the recent devastating council elections in the region, and a broad-based demonstration against the Liberal Democrat leader planned for the day one can only assume that he was unwilling to face those the government has let down in the region.

Cuts to our public services, a massive hike in tuition fees, the scrapping of the Education Maintenance Allowance and a whole host of other issues have caused anger across the political spectrum.

The question that must be asked is that if Newcastle was still a Liberal Democrat controlled council, if Nick Clegg had opposed the tuition fee increases (as he had pledged) and the NHS reforms(as the rank and file members of the party demand) would he be pulling out of this conference at the last minute?

The government is currently involved in a ‘listening exercise’ on the NHS reforms. Yet the Deputy Prime Minister is unable to visit the city of Newcastle at the thought of Health Professionals, students and members of the public showing their opposition to the plans of the coalition government. Maybe it is because he knows the truth that the changes to the NHS are bad for patient health, yet he is failing to provide adequate opposition to these reforms.

The issue has not gone away with Nick Clegg’s withdrawal. The NHS is still being privatised by stealth and we must do all we can to continue to highlight how damaging reforms to the NHS will be to both patients and health workers.

The demonstration must still go ahead to show Nick Clegg that this was not about humiliating the Liberal Democrat leader, but highlighting the wreckage this government is creating out of our NHS, Higher Education and public services.

Come down to the demonstration on Thursday: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=193887673991020

Join the UK Uncut action on Saturday: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=217960824896731

We must unite to show this government there is an alternative and that hiding from the public simply isn’t good enough.'

If you want more info on what's going on locally with regard to the NHS 'like' Keep Our NHS Public North East: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Keep-Our-NHS-Public-North-East/142954425772617

The message above is via this Event page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=193887673991020


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NHS is not for sale

One of the many reasons why everyone should join the TUC's March for the Alternative:



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NHS Direct to be scrapped

Tory milksnatching plans may have been rapidly squashed by David Cameron a little while back, but it seems the proposal to scrap NHS Direct is getting the green light. The Guardian reports:

'The health secretary, Andrew Lansley, has let slip that the government is planning to scrap NHS Direct, the hugely popular medical telephone helpline. While touring Basingstoke and North Hampshire hospital on Thursday, he revealed that the phone service – which this year cost £123m to run – is to be axed.

Until Lansley's apparent indiscretion, the official government line was that a new free telephone service, NHS 111, would not replace existing local telephone services or NHS Direct but might do so in the longer term if a pilot scheme is successful. The Department of Health has confirmed that NHS 111 would replace NHS Direct within three years. The new service is undergoing trials in County Durham and Darlington.

"When NHS 111 is rolled out nationally, it will replace the NHS Direct 0845 4647 telephone number," the department said yesterday. People can dial 111 to get health advice and information about out-of-hours GPs, walk-in centres, emergency dentists and 24-hour chemists. Although the new number is free, it is expected to be far cheaper to run than NHS Direct because it is likely to employ fewer medically trained staff. The department said it did not know how much NHS 111 would cost but admitted that it had a responsibility to save money.'

It's obvious the change is driven by cost-cutting, rather than by anything to do with effectiveness. The result will be a poorer service for the public.

Clearly the government is willing to take potentially unpopular decisions even when the amount of money involved is very small (£123 million is a tiny fraction of the NHS budget), so determined are they to slash public services. Are they going to claim NHS Direct of all things is 'wasteful' or 'inefficient'?

It makes a mockery of promises to safeguard NHS funding and protect 'frontline services'. I wonder what does count as a 'frontline service' in the minds of government ministers, if not a widely-used medical phone helpline and online service. It should send a clear warning that nothing is safe.

Surveys and polls have repeatedly revealed deep-seated commitment to the NHS. The government risks a backlash when it rolls back the most successful, and cherished, achievement of the post-war welfare state. This latest threat is part of a larger pattern of undermining the NHS and of unnecessarily cutting public services.

Sign the petition at Save NHS Direct


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