NHS: event update

Staff and volunteers in the 38 Degrees office pulling together materials for tomorrow's event

Tomorrow night’s NHS event for senior GPs now has over 18,000 sponsors – who’ve each put in at least one pound in sponsorship to help the event go ahead. That’s brilliant. Thank you! Here’s a quick update on how plans are shaping up.

Speakers

We’ve got an excellent panel of speakers confirmed for the event:

• Zoe Williams (chair) Guardian columnist and journalist, who has recently written about our NHS campaign. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoe_Williams
• Dr David Wrigley Patient & Public Engagement Lead for Lancashire North CCG. GP in Carnforth, Lancashire. Member of BMA UK Council and the BMA General Practitioners Committee. http://drdavidwrigley.blogspot.co.uk/
• Dr Evan Harris Health, science, free speech, human rights and equality campaigner; MP for Oxford West and Abingdon from 1997 to 2010. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Harris
• Dr Louise Irvine GP in Lewisham, Member of Executive of London Regional Council of BMA, and Programme Director in Lewisham for GP Specialist Training
• Dr Ron Singer Retired GP from Edmonton, with over 30 years’ experience working in the NHS, sits on the general practice committee of the BMA.
• Roy Lilley NHS Writer, broadcaster, commentator. Trustee of Patient Choice initiative, founding member of NHS Trust Foundation. http://www.roylilley.co.uk/CV_page.html

Promotion

Dr David Wrigley has kindly e-mailed all CCG chairs, inviting them to the event. Tomorrow morning, a team of 38 Degrees volunteers will be outside the “official” Capita and United Healthcare sponsored conference as delegates arrive. As well as traditional invitations, we will also be handing out “save our NHS” cupcakes, which we hope will grab people’s attention and help create a buzz inside the official conference. These are currently at the bakers!

Logistics

We’ve got a venue booked, just a couple of minutes’ walk from the official venue, and have organised a buffet and drinks reception to tempt the GPs over (we are competing with an official United Healthcare and capita sponsored drinks reception, so we need to ensure we put on a decent spread).

On the night, as well as the panel discussion, we will be projecting information on to the walls naming all the sponsors, and explaining why 38 Degrees members are so committed to protecting the NHS. We’ll be handing out “goody bags” including more information about the campaign. The leaflets have just got back from the printers, you can see them in the photo.

Follow up

We will be filming and taking photographs during the event, so we should have plenty to share after it has happened. We have also already been contacted by some CCG chairs who cannot make it tomorrow night suggesting we organise a follow-on event in another city in the next few weeks. If more people continue to put in their one pound sponsorship, we should definitely have the funds to do another event – watch this space!