The New Dark Age

24 July 2015 — 38 Degrees

The truth about NHS privatisation has been exposed. An undercover investigation has found shocking care failures by private health business Care UK. It’s been caught leaving dangerously ill patients waiting for hours, and using work experience students instead of nurses. [1] This is what happens when private companies get their hands on our NHS. 

Care UK boasts that they are the single biggest business helping to privatise the NHS. [2] If we can kick them out of our NHS, it’ll be a major blow to the government’s privatisation project. A huge public outcry will pile pressure on hospital bosses to shut the door on Care UK – at every hospital they approach.

Can you sign the petition to stop Care UK making a profit out of our NHS? Your name will be added to a petition where you live to prove that Care UK aren’t wanted anywhere near our local hospitals.

Local fights for our NHS can have a huge impact. [3] Decisions about hospitals are made at a local level – where NHS bosses aren’t used to feeling public pressure. The hospital at the centre of this week’s investigation has already called an emergency meeting to rethink their contract with Care UK. [4]

38 Degrees members already know that privatisation is damaging our NHS – and providers like Care UK are a symbol of everything that’s wrong with profit-making healthcare. [5] If 38 Degrees members can make the name of one of the UK’s largest private health companies a dirty word, we’ll make it much harder for the government to sell off our NHS.

A huge campaign by 38 Degrees members against Care UK could throw their plans to privatise our NHS into disarray. Step by step, our petition will put the focus on every hospital across the country to shut the door on this profit-hungry company. Please sign the petition now:

Care UK is responsible for caring for more than ten million NHS patients, thanks to lucrative deals with local hospitals. But doctors have said that the company shows ‘total disregard’ for patient safety. Despite this, Care UK turned over £728 million last year. [6]

38 Degrees members believe in a properly-funded NHS where politicians listen to doctors and nurses, not vested interests – and where public money goes back into the NHS, not into the pockets of company executives.

So let’s fight to protect our NHS. Together, we can make sure our voice is louder than private health lobbyists – so when NHS bosses hear the words Care UK, they shut the door. Please sign the petition now:

Thanks for being involved,

Rebecca, Nat, Laura and the 38 Degrees team

PS. Update on bees: on Wednesday environment minister Liz Truss snuck out a last-minute decision to allow the use of bee-killing pesticides on UK fields.

It’s not good news. Half a million 38 Degrees members have been campaigning against this. Together we made the decision tough for the government and they approved a smaller amount of pesticides in the end. But they backed the interests of profit over our bees.

The news is a big, surprising setback in our campaign. But we won’t stop here. Can you help decide what we do next in the campaign to protect bees?
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/bees-what-next

NOTES:
[1] The Mirror: Private NHS contractor ‘boots out patients before finishing treatment to meet targets’:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/private-nhs-contractor-discharging-patients-6111502
[2] Care UK’s website:
http://www.careuk.com/
[3] 38 Degrees blog: NHS Victory: People Power in Staffordshire:
https://home.38degrees.org.uk/2015/06/12/nhs-victory-people-power-staffordshire/
[4] ITV: Medicine shortages, manipulated targets and patients doing nurses’ jobs: ITV’s Exposure at an NHS Out of Hours clinic:
http://www.itv.com/news/2015-07-21/medicine-shortages-manipulated-targets-and-patients-doing-nurses-jobs-itv-exposure-at-an-nhs-out-of-hours-clinic/
[5] Here are a few links to just some of the controversy around Care UK:
The Guardian: 111 helpline has fundamental flaw, say critics:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jul/29/111-helpline-flaw-critics
The Financial Times: 14 Care UK homes face investigation:
https://next.ft.com/243543e4-586d-11e4-a31b-00144feab7de
The Telegraph: A&E crisis caused by NHS 111 phoneline, senior medic suggests:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/nhs/11344941/AandE-crisis-caused-by-NHS-111-phoneline-senior-medic-suggests.html
Care UK now own Harmoni, the company at the centre of this tragic failure at an out of hours services: 
The Independent: IoS investigation: Health care agency under fire on safety http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/ios-investigation-health-care-agency-under-fire-on-safety-8518076.html
[6] Daily Mail: Out-of-hours clinic that makes you take own temperature: Undercover probe exposes shocking care failures:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3168823/Undercover-probe-exposes-hours-clinic-makes-temperature.html