Look after NHS

This week I called in to my GP surgery to get results of an X-ray last week on my ankle - fortunately it is on the mend and I am now able to walk more. Anyway it was good to see leaflets advertising the "Look after Your NHS" campaign - see here: www.lookafterournhs.org.uk/

Photo: Stroud Hospital last week

I signed one of the leaflets but you can also find info on their website. As this blog has highlighted the NHS in England is changing. Some patient care is now provided by large multinational companies. Their contracts are funded with taxpayers’ money but it’s their shareholders who get the profits. This is public money which is lost to the NHS.

At the Green party's recent conference the NHS was one of the key issues - as noted before we added policies on patient empowerment, calling for a new model of patient-owned co-ops for GP practices, to end NHS subsidies for private healthcare, ethical guidelines for all types of stem call research and breastfeeding. See more re health policies stuff here.

However it is clear that Greens are now almost alone in terms of political parties in calling for an end to commercialisation of the NHS - I fully support this campaign by the BMA and others - indeed have added their banner to the bottom right hand column of this blog.

As a last point I wanted to mention the announcement by the Prime Minister's Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery - it called for nurses and midwives to "renew their pledge to society to provide compassionate care" - what on earth is all this about?? "Patronising, insulting and inappropriate" was how I heard one nurse describe it. This pledge will not restore trust in the NHS - the problems lie in underfunding, increasing commercialisation and privatisation.