The Future of the NHS

The Future of the NHS

Notes on our meeting on the  Future of the NHS at Labour party conference 2012 Lord Phil Hunt: Is getting angry about what the government is doing to the health service. Our vision is staying true to the vision of comprehensive care irrespective ability to pay. Tories have fragmented marketed Approach treating health as a … Read more

Tory Boy’s Picnic

  More videos on our You Tube channel (tune: Teddy Bears’ picnic, words: Liverpool Socialist Singers/) If you go out for a walk today You’d better not catch a cold You’ll end up going to hospital And finding that it’s been sold Cos Lansley’s cut the National Health And sold it off to private wealth … Read more

The New NHS

The New National Health Service * Your new National Health Service begins on 5th July. What is it? How do you get it? It will provide you with all medical, dental and nursing care. Everyone – rich or poor, man, woman or child-can use it or any part of it. There are no charges, except … Read more

Clinical Networks shredded

Clinical networks which oversee the care of cancer, heart and stroke patients in the NHS have had their budgets and staff cut, figures show.
Some of the groups say they are postponing projects due to uncertainty from the changes made in England.  The data comes as a result of Freedom Of Information (FOI) questions put to the networks by Labour.
Ministers are confident the networks – set up to improve care and prevention of disease – will continue to do so. But the shadow care minister, Liz Kendall, claimed the figures showed the networks were “in chaos” and facing “huge uncertainty about their future”.
There are currently 28 cancer networks and 28 stroke and heart networks – both areas will be condensed into 12 groups across England after April, with diabetes joining heart and stroke care.

Read more

Keep Our NHS Postcard

For Patients to exercise a choice not to be sent to private providers

Building a campaign to save the NHS

SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS OF A CAMPAIGN MEETING  INTRODUCTION This is the summary of a meeting between the Socialist Health Association, KONP, Unite and Unison held on 5th April 2012. This paper is the first step in planning a collaborative campaign to defend the NHS against the damage caused by the Health and Social Care Act. … Read more

Expenditure on health

The relationship between expenditure on health and fundamental measures of benefit is pretty weak in developed countries. The figures for some countries may be misleading, as these graphs do not include private individuals expenditure, which in some places is quite considerable.   The relationship between expenditure and benefit is even weaker for infant mortality. Expenditure … Read more

Private Medical Treatment – numbers

Almost one in five NHS patients seen in secondary care now treated by private firms, after Labour’s ‘patient choice’ reforms led to an expansion in the independent healthcare market, a report by the Nuffield Trust and the Institute of Fiscal Studies concludes.  But as John Lister writes “These figures are evidence of private sector expansion … Read more

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting 2013

AGM held at Social Action for Health’s premises, Hackney 9th March 2013 Prior to the formal meeting, Elizabeth Bayliss of Social Action for Health described the work of organisation. She took questions from members. Various points were raised about the nature of effective community engagement. The Chair thanked her for her talk and for the … Read more

Annual General Meeting 2011

Minutes of Annual General Meeting of the Socialist Health Association held on Saturday 19th March 2011 at Wesley’s Chapel 49 City Road, London EC1Y 1AU, starting at noon. Present: Brian Fisher Huw Davies Gavin Ross Martin Rathfelder Tina Funnell Doug Naysmith Mike Roberts Vivien Giladi Chris Bain Melanie Johnson Roy Oliver Ali Syed Barrie Brown … Read more

The 65th birthday of the National Health Service

*  Across the country more than 1.5 million patients and their families will be in contact with the NHS every day. *  Approximately 170,000 people (the same number who attended the Glastonbury music festival) go for an eyesight test each week. *  Our NHS will help deliver around 16,000 babies at home. This is enough … Read more

Director’s Report

There are two main areas of activity at the moment: Work around Labour Party policy development and external campaigning.  Our new Chair has been  taking a vigorous lead on the policy front, so I have been concentrating on the campaigning front. The key asset here is our database, now with nearly 42,000 entries of people … Read more