Take the fight for the NHS into all our workplaces. Make repairing and restoring the NHS a topic of conversation at work. Blow the whistle on the damage to our NHS. There are nearly thirty-three million people at work in the UK. More than 6 million of those workers are in a trade union. Talk at work also gets back into the community. People at work are powerful. Make the NHS the talk of the workplace.

Support the NHS workers.

The magnificent work and skill of NHS staff just about keep the hospitals functioning and saving lives and health day after day, but there is a terrible toll on lives caused by Government policies on on the NHS with almost 300 avoidable deaths a week attributed to the situation in our Accident and Emergency units.

Who was Nye Bevan?

Nye was a miner and strong trade unionist who became an MP in 1929. He retained his loyalty to his class through his political life. In the 1920s there was no national health service. In the mining areas limited health services were organised by subscriptions collected by the miners, but such services were not available elsewhere. Working-class families often had no access to healthcare, especially for women and children. There was a huge demand for better healthcare from the unions, working-class women’s organisations and other organisations of the labour movement. Nye was part of that pressure. In 1945 after World War 2 Labour won the general election and Nye became Minister of Health. Against much pressure from the establishment, Nye set up the National Health Service.

The national health service was free at the point of need, paid for by taxes, and available to everyone, rich and poor young and old, every religion, every colour. It was a coordinated national service, providing all the available treatments. GPs and hospitals, baby clinics and public health. The NHS made a huge difference to working-class lives and especially in the lives of babies and women giving birth Until 2017 it was the best health service in the world. You can find out more in Ken Loach’s film Spirit of 45

How people at work can help win back the NHS?

Talking to other people at work is a powerful way to spread the campaign and to counter Government and press lies. Every great campaign starts with one-to-one conversations. The media does not report the crisis in the NHS at all accurately. Spreading the word at work can make a huge difference.

We can build solidarity across working people to restore the NHS

Solidarity: Unity or agreement of feeling or action, especially among individuals with a common interest; mutual support within a group. ( Oxford Dictionary)

Workers on the railways, in the water industry, in power, and in telecoms already understand the damage of privatisation.

It is working-class people who suffer most from poor healthcare. Working-class people live shorter lives and are more likely to have long-term health conditions, and these health conditions tend to be more severe than those experienced by richer people.

Maternity suffers badly from these policies as many posts on this blog show. This underfunding is costing lives and most of those lives are those of the babies from the least well-off areas.

Investment in healthcare pays back into the economy many times over. No country can be successful with nearly ten million people waiting for healthcare.

Restore and Repair the NHS. Stop the rot now!

Much wonderful healthcare is still available in the NHS, thanks to the huge sacrifices made by NHS workers but the damage is real.  Nearly ten million people are waiting for healthcare, while  US health corporations are profiting.

The Government spends 18% less per person on healthcare than the average in the EU, and less than half what is spent in the US, where health is much worse. The NHS system is cheaper and more effective than privatisation.

Funding for health services in England comes from the Department of Health and Social Care’s budget. The Department’s spending in 2022/23 was £181.7 billion.  This money is a honeypot for privatisers and local and international health companies.

Join your voices for our health care. Demand it back. Demand better!

The healthcare system in the United States is appalling. However recent governments have supported bringing US health corporations into the NHS. In the US health insurance costs about as much as the mortgage and does not cover everything. Many millions go without. “The U.S. has the lowest life expectancy at birth, the highest death rates for avoidable or treatable conditions, the highest maternal and infant mortality, and among the highest suicide rates.” Despite this failure, it is the US model of healthcare that is being brought into the UK by the government. “NHS monies are flowing to private companies, including firms with a dismal track record in the UK and some whose US parents have faced multi-million-pound penalties from state and federal authorities“.  Centene, Operose and United Health are all big US names involved in the privatisation of the NHS, including owning GP practices.

Trade Unions and working-class women’s organisations fought to found the NHS and those organisations can help to win it back. Demanding universal healthcare free at the point of need must have sounded far-fetched in those early years of campaigning. It is hard work today too but we can do it.

Private healthcare cannot be as good as a national comprehensive service. It is a far worse system in the USA. Private healthcare has to make a profit. A barrister who got cancer found his private health insurance premium doubled to £163,000 per year.

Profit-centred policies, hidden behind sweet words are reshaping our health services.

These policies are destroying our services, providing fewer services, fewer beds and massive staff shortages. But it provides more profit for health corporations and management “consultants”.

Reverse privatisation, charging, service cuts, closures, understaffing, down-skilling, low pay, and lethal waits for treatment.

The privatisation lobby is infecting Labour too, so the fightback is down to us all.

Everything I’m hearing is that they (Labour) will kick-start private sector investment much more proactively than the Tories were able to do” Henry Elphick, deputy chair of the European Healthcare Investor Association, an umbrella organisation for private capital providers investing in healthcare

The Conservative government has restricted funding, not met pledges about building new hospitals, and indeed closed more hospitals. It failed to maintain and repair existing hospitals, and promised many more GPs and now we have fewer GPs , but they have fed money into the pockets of big business.

Accident and Emergency services are in serious trouble. “Almost 300 deaths a week in 2023 associated with long A&E waits ….” This is from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, the professional organisation of Emergency doctors.

Thanks to Government policy, the NHS is short of staff, yet newly qualified doctors and those who have finished their training to become consultants cannot find work. Many NHS staff leave because of the stress at work and poor pay. This is whilst patients wait in pain.

We want to make the NHS once again a  great national, comprehensive, universal service, publicly owned, publicly provided, providing timely care, free at the point of need. Good health care is an excellent national investment in the health happiness and wealth of its people.

Demand a return to the original NHS, once the best in the world. (This is according to a regular survey from US Think Tank the Commonwealth Fund.) The health minister once had a legal duty to provide for the health of the nation but that was removed in the 2022 Act

They got rid of the legal responsibility to provide for our health “The Secretary of State must continue the promotion in England of a comprehensive health service designed to secure improvement—(a)in the physical and mental health of the people of England, and(b)in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of physical and mental illness.”https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/7/section/1/enacted

The NHS Government funded, providing timely healthcare for all, including all the services, publicly delivered by qualified staff with decent pay and conditions, as designed by Aneurin Bevan. This is the cheapest, most cost-efficient and humane way to provide health care.

Kick out all privatisation. Every penny of government health spending must go to patient care, to the staff, to equipment and buildings, not a penny to the privatisers’ huge corporations.
Expand the services.
Demand timely treatment for all, rich and poor, young and old.

According to BMA research, the number of doctors per 1,000 people in England is 25 years behind comparable OECD European Union nations, second lowest only to Poland.

The Government has brought in a US-style, service-cutting system through the 40+ ICBs. This redesigns the NHS on US lines and diverts funding (especially from our hospitals) to reward those who cut them back. Fewer services are being provided in the NHS, as the needs increase. Pressure is put on patients to use private healthcare.

If YOU spread the word, we stand a chance of getting our services back.

Government policy costs lives, especially the lives of working-class people. It means avoidable deaths and more years of ill health.

What has happened to dentistry and mental health services can happen to every service. Wages and conditions in the NHS have fallen in real terms. Staff are working way beyond their duties just to keep the service afloat.

People power can be very powerful. That’s how many changes have been achieved

End the “I.C.S.” There are now 42 Integrated Care Systems across England. These bodies are not Integrated, don’t control Care and are not a real System) This model is designed for cuts, privatisation and damaging restructuring.

The NHS model is more cost-effective, and more efficient than the US model or social insurance models. However, no model of health care can run effectively if it is being ripped off by big business and denied adequate funding.

Union members working together will be heard

The NHS is your inheritance yet it is being taken from you. Make sure you leave a functioning NHS to your children and grandchildren

How to fight back for the NHS
#Spread the word. Talk at work.  Spread the word in the communities. Challenge elected representatives #Talk to one workmate about this each week #Raise the issue with your union.
#Challenge the  government lies, Challenge the private healthcare lobbyists in the Conservative party and those in Labour
#Demand a full-service NHS

They say we can’t afford the NHS. Oh yes, we can!!

Excuses for poor healthcare that are straight lies

Lie 1. The NHS has problems because we have so many old people. Nonsense. The government has known how many old people there would be for decades.

Lie 2• The NHS just needs more funding just needs more funding. No, the money has to go to patient care and staff pay not into the pockets of companies like Optum.

Lie 3 The UK can’t afford the NHS. Nonsense! The UK is the 6th largest economy in the world and good healthcare makes it richer

Multi-national companies are gloating over the Americanisation of the NHS – and the fat, fast profits they can make at the expense of the sick and dying

There is another aspect of privatisation is the bringing in of the US model of Accountable Care. The US government pays big companies for some people’s healthcare. The companies make their profit from the difference between what they get from the Government and what services they provide.

Of course, the final form of privatisation is when people have to pay for all their treatment. Some people already have to pay for treatment in the NHS at 150% of cost. Women giving birth can be charged £14,000 to give birth.

Make the NHS the talk of the workplace.

This article is written on behalf of the coordinated NHS campaigns in Cheshire and Merseyside which includes the Trades Councils in the area, Unite Community branches, Keep our NHS Public, Save Liverpool Women’s Hospital, Socialist Health and other groups. We can help with leaflets, posters, speakers and information Please Contact us via saveLWH@outlook.com or by mail to Save Liverpool Women’s Hospital Campaign c/o News from Nowhere, 96 Bold Street Liverpool