NHS “listening exercise"

Dear All, 
There are just ten days of health minister Andrew Lansley’s NHS “listening exercise” left. It’s pretty clear what he’d like to happen next. He wants to use his stage-managed exercise as an excuse to claim he’s listened – before ploughing ahead with his reckless NHS changes.
YouGov research paid for by 38 Degrees members has found that 95% of the public have no idea how to get involved with the “listening exercise”. [1] That suits Lansley down to the ground!
By working together we can expose this sham and stop the listening exercise being used as cover to push through Lansley’s plans. If we club together, we can buy full-page adverts in national newspapers to sound the alarm about Lansley’s phoney listening exercise. We can tell the millions of people Lansley wants to ignore how to join the Save Our NHS campaign.
38 Degrees members have already donated £30,000 for ads in The Times, The Mail and The Guardian next week. If we reach £50,000 we can get into other papers like the Daily Mirror as well, and reach millions more people. Please help sound the alarm by making a secure donation now: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/lansley-isnt-listening
Andrew Lansley’s “listening exercise” has been carefully stage-managed. Most events have been closed to the public. In Sheffield last Friday, 38 Degrees members handing in our massive petition discovered that a “listening exercise” event had been held nearby hours earlier – but was kept secret until it was over. That’s not the only reason it’s a sham. Behind the scenes, health officials have been told to carry on with Lansley’s original plans [2].
The next ten days are critical. These adverts will help sound the alarm and stop Andrew Lansley using this listening exercise as cover for pushing through his plan. But we can only run them if enough of us chip in.
Please donate now to help sound the alarm and get our adverts in newspapers next week:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/lansley-isnt-listening
Doctors, nurses, and patients’ groups have been queueing up to say how dangerous Lansley’s NHS plans are. [3] Last week, the Royal College of GPs said they could “unravel” the NHS. And last Sunday, The Observer revealed that one of Lansley’s top advisers told private health companies to expect big profits when the NHS moves to a US-style “insurance system”.
We can’t let that happen. We all rely on the NHS sooner or later, to take care of us and our loved ones. It’s not perfect, but that’s no excuse for ignoring the advice of the real experts and pushing through these huge, untested changes. To stop these plans, 38 Degrees members are contacting and meeting MPs up and down the country. We’re building a huge petition showing the extent of public concern.
So now let’s put these adverts all over the papers – and make sure everyone knows they can get involved with our growing campaign to stop these dangerous NHS changes.
Please make a secure donation and help get the ads in the papers now:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/lansley-isnt-listening

Thanks for getting involved, 
Johnny, Marie, Cian, Hannah, David, Becky and the 38 Degrees team
NOTES
Quote from Dr Hamish Meldrum: http://www.politics.co.uk/interviews/health/interview-bma-s-hamish-meldrum-$21388805.htm
[1] http://www.38degrees.org.uk/lansley-yougov-poll
[2] Letter ‘shows pause on NHS reform is stunt’ http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23942461-letter-shows-pause-on-nhs-reform-is-stunt.do
[3] http://38degrees.org.uk/pages/save-our-nhs-who-is-worried