Safeguarding our NHS

This has arrived from 38 degrees.

Here is some HUGE good news: more than 100,000 of us have signed local petitions asking doctors to use their powers to save local NHS services.
It’s already working. City and Hackney CCG, in London, have said they’ll adopt 38 Degrees safeguards into their constitution. They've agreed to put their patients first, and use their new powers to prevent local health services being damaged by privatisation.

Now we need to repeat this success in other places. The first step is getting thousands more signatures on local petitions to show doctors we’ll back them if they protect the NHS.

Please forward this message to at least three friends and family living in England, and ask them to add their name here:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/CCG-petition

The doctors on local CCGs will be under pressure from the government to hand out contracts to private companies. That could put vital services at risk. [1] But the last thing most doctors want is to carve up our NHS for private profit. Plus, the new CCGs have a legal duty to listen to local people. [2]

If we can get in early, while CCGs are still being formed, we can give doctors a better choice - one based on sound legal advice and the interests of patients, not private companies.

There are hundreds of thousands of us who care about the future of our health service. Can you forward this email to friends and family who want to protect our NHS and ask them to click here to join in now?
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/CCG-petition

The success in Hackney is a huge step forward for two reasons:

1. It proves our campaign can work - if we can win over local doctors in Hackney, we can win over the local doctors taking decisions about your local health services too.

2. It boosts our chances of winning everywhere else - it's always a bit harder to persuade someone to be the first to do something. Now that City and Hackney CCG have taken the plunge, it should be a little easier to persuade doctors everywhere else.

If it can work in Hackney, then it can work elsewhere too. Please can you add your name to the petition to your local doctors now?
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/CCG-petition


Thanks for being involved,

Becky, James, Marie and the 38 Degrees team


NOTES
[1] “...plans for a radical restructuring of the health service in England, which will give GPs control of much of the NHS's £106bn annual budget, cut the number of health bodies, and introduce more competition into services”
Guardian: NHS Reform Health bill passes vote http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/mar/20/nhs-reform-health-bill-passes-vote
BBC: NHS - The shape of things to come http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17457102
[2] Telegraph: Scrap NHS Bill, say doctors who will run reforms http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9112448/Scrap-NHS-Bill-say-doctors-who-will-run-reforms.html
Pulse: More GP commissioners withdraw support from health bill
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/newsarticle-content/-/article_display_list/13604675/more-gp-commissioners-withdraw-support-from-health-bill