Apr 14th, 2011

NHS local petition hand-ins across the country

By holly.b

After an overwhelming response from 38 Degrees members asking for the campaign to protect the NHS to continue, hundreds of thousands have signed the petition, and people all over the country are writing to their MPs to ask them to save the NHS.

Over the past month, 38 Degrees members across the country have been handing in the 250,000 strong Save our NHS petition to MPs on the scrutiny committee for the NHS Health Reform Bill – the committee which has been examining the government’s NHS plans.

If you haven’t already, you can sign the petition here

Across the country 38 Degrees members wanted to show their MPs that they really do care about the NHS in their MP’s local constituency surgery or coffee morning by handing in the petition. Now, people are writing to ask their MP’s what they think about the proposed changes to the NHS. If you want to send a letter to your local MP to see if they are supporting the Bill, you can use our Tell your MP to Protect the NHS here.

Photograph by 38 Degrees

NHS petition hand-in, Islington

Photograph by 38 Degrees

Petition hand-in Central Suffolk and North Ipswich

Photograph by 38 Degrees

NHS petition hand-in Rother Valley

Photograph by 38 Degrees

NHS petition hand-in North Warwickshire

Photograph by 38 Degrees

NHS petition hand-in Halton

In Winchester on Friday the 18th March 38 Degrees member Kate reported the following:

“A group of some 20 Winchester citizens, 8 of whom were either current or retired NHS employees (some at very senior level) crowded into the Conservative Constituency office on Friday last, to drop off the 38 Degrees national petition, with 200,000 signatures supporting the NHS against back- door privatisation. In the passionate but polite discussion that followed the point was made that where such major upheavals were proposed in the structure of huge and complex organisation, any prudent manager would run a pilot study, limited by area, rather than commit to a root and branch reorganisation, on an untested blueprint. It was pointed out that we are facing the virtual dis-memberment of a national organisation and that this fragmentation will be irreversible.”

Pam in Stourbridge states that her reasons to support the local hand in:
“For me, health is not a commodity, it’s a privilege. The NHS has always been there for me and my family, in sickness and in health, whenever I’ve needed it. Whether it’s for treatment that’s been planned carefully or for emergencies like when my mum had a heart attack, it’s been able to cope. These plans remind me of the USA’s health system; for many of their citizens reliable healthcare doesn’t exist.”

The hand in for Stafford was arranged by David who thinks:
“Doctors have enough work to do without having to run a county wide admin body. there are many implications which would indicate inefficiency from finance to staffing.” due to the indication that plans are “to take all hospitals over to foundation status, then get doctors to form admin/steering groups that control a budget who will select companies to tender for contracts to run services.”

Southport had a petition hand-in organised by Lynn, who said “The NHS is our ‘jewel in the crown’ and too precious to leave to market forces, where clinical decision making is directed by financial considerations. I believe that this will ultimately lead to the destruction of the NHS as we know it. I hope that by handing in the petition of over 150,000 signatures, Dr Pugh takes on board the concerns of his constituents, and we can inspire more individuals to fight to have the Bill removed.“

15 hand-ins took place all over the UK which you can find on this map:
View Save Our NHS – petition hand-ins in a larger map

There have also been loads of local media reports as well which you can find here:

And we’ve got a few pictures from some of the hand-ins sent in by 38 Degrees members on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/38degrees/sets/72157626349456348/

A big thank you and well done to all of the 38 Degrees members that got involved in the local hand-ins.