NOVANEWS
Dear All,
Today, Nick Clegg and David Cameron admitted that the original NHS plans were wrong, and accepted the need for changes.We’ve not won yet – but we definitely have made progress. According to Andrew Lansley’s original timetable, the NHS changes would be law by now. We’ve helped stop that happen.
Clegg and Cameron’s speeches included some steps in the right direction. But we can’t afford to drop our guard. For a start, these are just speeches – we haven’t seen the full text of the proposed laws. We will need to scrutinise the plans line by line as they pass through parliament.
We have got this far by working together. 38 Degrees members voted to start the campaign because we know just how important the NHS is – we can’t trust it’s future to politicians.
If we keep working together, we can keep the pressure on. But what should be our priorities? How can we push David Cameron to keep the promises he has made this week? How can push our MPs to vote down bits of the plans that still look dangerous? What could we do to challenge cuts to services we rely on?
Help decide what we do next together by completing this two minute poll:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-what-shall-we-do-next
Back in April, thousands of us took part in a vote to decide together which parts of the NHS plans we were most worried about.
Today, hundreds of 38 Degrees members have been discussing the announcements and the media coverage on the 38 Degrees website and Facebook page. Here’s an attempt at a summary of what we decided to prioritise and where we seem to have got to:
What we decided together to focus on |
What David Cameron’s new proposals might mean |
Don’t force the NHS to promote competition between private health companies: rule out price competition and promote co-operation and quality of care instead |
Some Progress. It sounds like the role of the NHS regulator, “Monitor”, will now have an overall focus on promoting the interests of patients not price competition as originally proposed. The devil will be in the detail of how this works, and there is probably still more talk of competition than lots of us would like. Lib Dem MP Andrew George has warned “Monitor” could act as a “trojan horse” allowing more of the original plans to be slipped “through the back door”. |
Don’t allow private companies to “cherry pick” healthcare contracts in a way which could undermine local hospitals: put NHS services and hospitals first |
Progress. There will be “new safeguards” to stop private companies taking over the job of commissioning health services where hard-pressed GPs are unwilling. But the government wants to keep the policy of “Any Willing Provider” being allowed to run NHS services, including private companies. Many experts say this policy means that in practice it will be extremely difficult to prevent “cherry-picking”. We will definitely need to look hard at this area of the legislation when it is published. |
Don’t take big decisions about health spending without experts and patients being involved as well as GPs |
A lot of progress. It sounds like patients, nurses, and hospital doctors will now be involved in taking decisions as well as GPs. Mental Health Charity Rethink is describing the revised plans as “a real step forward for patient power”. |
Don’t allow big decisions about health spending be taken behind closed doors and without democratic scrutiny |
Some Progress. It seems that local “health and well-being boards”, which include elected local people, will have a beefed up role in scrutinising what GP commissioning boards are up to. |
Don’t force any big changes without testing them properly first – trial any changes in one area for several years first, then give parliament a fresh vote |
A little bit of progress. The timetable for imposing the changes has definitely been slowed down, with many of the original deadlines dropped or softened. But the government still isn’t proposing a local trial, or a fresh vote once we’ve seen how all of the new systems work. |
Don’t remove the government’s “duty” to provide a comprehensive health service: keep that duty in law |
Success? It’s being reported that the Bill will be rewritten to reinstate this comprehensive duty. That would be a massive success – but we need to see it happen in practice before we can relax! |
What areas of David Cameron’s new plan are you most concerned about? What should 38 Degrees members do together next to stand up for the future of our health service?
Have your say here:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-what-shall-we-do-next
We won’t know exactly what the government is planning until they release detailed legislation. But we do know that some hardliners are angry that Andrew Lansley’s original plans have been changed and will be campaigning to revive them. If we keep working together, we can make sure that doesn’t happen.
Two weeks ago, before this flurry of announcements, thousands of 38 Degrees members voted to decide what we should do next. So much has changed since then, but here are some of the most popular ideas we came up with:
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Aim to deliver copies of the Save our NHS petition to every single member of the cabinet in the next month
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Send lots of letters to local papers to make sure they hear how many people are worried about the NHS plans
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Hold birthday parties in July to celebrate the NHS’s 63rd birthday
