Con-Dem White Paper will "Eviscerate NHS"
Press Release July 13

The Con-Dem coalition could bring the end of the NHS as we know it - by 2015, according to pressure group London Health Emergency, which has been campaigning since 1983 ...

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Special FINANCIAL Appeal

Help us campaign to save our NHS!

The NHS faces its biggest-ever threat: a 'double whammy' of massive cuts year by year to 2014, coupled with the White Paper proposals that could wipe out all public sector provision of health services.

The ConDem government has no mandate to transform the National Health Service into a national health market. But if there is no public challenge, the White Paper could be forced quickly through Parliament.

Hospital staff have everything to lose and nothing to gain from the proposals which could see tens of thousands of jobs axed, and hundreds of thousands pushed out of the NHS workforce, with new threats to their pay scales and pensions.

Every cutback that is accepted will just encourage desperate employers to come back for more.

It really is do or die for those of us who want to defend the NHS as a public service, and who value the staff who deliver services.

To build a successful campaign requires resources, publicity, time and effort: and until there is a broad popular campaign established with the support of the main health unions, much of the work will fall to organisations like London Health Emergency.

But right now, we don't have the resources to cope.

We need help to keep the issue in the media, and work with local campaigners to get the message across in meetings, protests and local publicity. Just producing and distributing the latest issue of Health Emergency newspaper (out early September) will cost £2000.

We urge any readers or supporting organisations that can do so to make a donation, as large as you can afford, to ensure we have the resources to keep on fighting to scupper Lansley's White Paper, keep our NHS intact - and keep it public.

You can donate by cheque (to 'LHE', at BCM London Health Emergency, London WC1N 3XX), or online here.

LHE warns 2010 a "crucial year for NHS"

The pell-mell drive to privatise PCT directly-provided services appears to have been slowed, if not halted, as a result of consistent trade union pressure on health ministers - although sadly not before services in Hull, Bromley and Kingston have been lined up for take-over by "social enterprises". Health Secretary Andy Burnham has insisted that the NHS should now be the "preferred provider" of services, although a number of PCTs and Strategic Health Authorities are clearly looking to get around this or ignore it altogether.

We wish we could look forward to similar successes in this new year. But sadly we have to report that the new decade is opening with the NHS facing new and very serious threats.

The new danger is the old enemy that London Health Emergency was formed to fight back in 1983: cuts and closures.

All the main political parties are agreed that massive cuts - equivalent to a total of £15-£20 billion (from an NHS budget currently at £100 billion) over the next few years - should be inflicted on health care, education and other public services. This is NOT because these services have failed in any way, but because of a huge private sector failure. They are cutting health care in a bid to cover the colossal £175 billion costs of bailing out failed and irresponsible bankers.

Of course the party leaders do not admit that they plan cuts in the NHS - least of all in the run up to the General Election in May. So each of them claims to be "protecting" front line services by increasing funding in line with inflation - ignoring the fact that the NHS needs an extra £5 billion a year to keep pace with the costs of a growing population, a rising elderly population, and new drugs and technology ...

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Pressure group in defence of the NHS

Founded in the autumn of 1983, London Health Emergency is the country's biggest and longest-running pressure group in defence of the NHS.

With over 150 trade union bodies, campaigns and community organisations affiliated at local, regional and national level, and many more subscribers, LHE issues a tabloid newspaper Health Emergency which has a print run of 7,000 and a distribution reaching many parts of England, Scotland and Wales. Health Emergency carries news and comment on the full range of health service policy issues, with a special focus on acute hospital services, mental health services, care of the elderly, and the impact of the government's marketising reforms.

LHE continues to act as a vocal defender of health services in London and across the country. Our Breaking News service carries updates and flags up issues of concern to journalists as well as health activists.

Read more about LHE

Clarification

London Health Emergency was set up by the GLC in 1983, but has received no funding from local government since 1998. It is not linked with any political party or group.

To continue to resource our campaign work we need affiliations and donations from individuals and organisations who support our policies in fighting privatisation and market reforms in the NHS.

Click here to affiliate to LHE or to subscribe to Health Emergency

Keep Our NHS Public

A campaign involving consultants, academics, MPs, trade unions, pensioners groups and campaigners was launched in autumn 2005 to challenge the government's accelerating drive towards privatisation of the NHS.

London Health Emergency, alongside the NHS Support Federation, was actively involved in the launch of this campaign which has endorsement from prominent individuals and trade union organisations and is gathering momentum daily.

For more details, and to register your support online, check out the campaign's website www.keepournhspublic.com