May 17th, 2012
NHS: Poll Update
By Kunal Modi
Over the last couple of weeks, more than 60,000 of us have voted on what we should do together next to save the NHS.
The 38 Degrees office has looked at every response to the poll so far. The result of the vote leaves us with no doubt that lots of us want the NHS to continue to be a big issue in elections, and to help GPs to use their new powers to protect the NHS. But all the choices were popular, with each one getting a majority of “a lot” votes from 38 Degrees members.
You can see a chart showing how each option fared below. 38 Degrees members have voted that we want (in order of preference) to:
1. Make the NHS an issue in elections
2. Campaign for local GPs to use their new powers to protect the NHS
3. Build up a national picture of how cuts and privatisation are impacting on the NHS
4. Deter private companies from encroaching on the NHS
5. Campaign if and when things start to go wrong in a specific local area, by sounding the alarm and calling for a change of plans
6. Create a people-powered NHS watchdog
7. Help NHS staff who’ve lost their jobs by advising on how to set up alternative organisations to compete with management consultants and big companies
For each choice, the blue bar shows how many of us wanted us to do it a lot, the red shows how many of us wanted to do it a little, and the green shows how many of us didn’t want to do it at all.
What next?
We start putting the winning tactics in motion over the next few weeks. To start with, we’re asking 38 Degrees members to commit to supporting the NHS campaign in the long-term by giving a few pounds each week so we can keep the campaign going at full pressure.
Please give what you can to make sure we can keep campaigning to save our NHS:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-direct-debit
But that’s just the first step. Over the next few days and weeks, there’ll be lots of opportunities to take action to protect our NHS from changes which could damage its future.
What do you think?
What do you think of these results? Are there any other priorities that you think should be on the list? Please share your ideas in the comments section below.
