Health
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UK Govt’s secret plans to further cut local health services exposed
Health Minister Jeremy Hunt has a secret plan to force through changes to local NHS services to cut costs. The changes – called “sustainability and transformation plans” – are being kept secret. But they could mean cuts to hospital beds, local walk-in centres or family planning services near you. Continue reading
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‘Pharmaceutical Companies Have Pressured Doctors, Suppressed Evidence’
Pharmaceutical companies say they lament the addiction and fatality problems tied to their products, but they also seem determined to resist efforts to address them, suggesting to do so would have to mean taking away relief from people in pain. It’s a medical story, certainly, but it’s also one that calls for following the money,… Continue reading
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Drug Companies are Still Ripping Off the NHS
The scale of the scandal’s only just come to light. An investigation by the Times found that the NHS is paying £85 for a basic skin-care treatment that used to cost just 70p. Price hikes like this one are costing our NHS the equivalent of 7,000 new doctors a year. Continue reading
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50,000 deaths a year: An “toxic air pollution crisis”: Sign the Petition
A public health emergency: that’s what MPs are calling Britain’s air pollution crisis. Thousands of lives are cut short every year from toxic air polluted with chemicals like nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide. There’s even evidence that it’s permanently damaging our childern’s lungs. Continue reading
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EXPOSED: A small number of rogue drugs companies are fleecing the NHS out of millions of pounds a year
They’re exploiting a loophole that allows them to buy up the rights to everyday medicines, hike up the price, and hold our NHS to ransom. It means our cash-strapped health service is forced to spend millions on overpriced drugs rather than spending it on nurses to care for our families or cancer services to help… Continue reading
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Save the NHS: Mail your MP today
Next Friday our MPs are debating a new law that could achieve everything 38 Degrees members want for our NHS: enshrining it as free for everyone, protecting it from profit-driven companies and stopping cynical government cuts. This new law is about the values we hold close to us: an NHS that’s got people at its… Continue reading
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FOI: Stop the G4S/Virgin Takeover of the NHS!
Yesterday, the government’s own advisors backed what 38 Degrees members have been asking for in our hundreds of thousands – that we have a right to know what private companies who run services like in our NHS are up to. But here’s the snag. The advice is buried on page 51 of a new report… Continue reading
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Mosquito Blowback? GM mosquito source of Zika Virus?
Here are eight stories on the Zika virus now ravaging Brazil. Four investigate a possible link between the outbreak and the introduction of genetically modified mosquitos to Brazil, and four, all from the mainstream/corporate press, take the complete opposite position, claiming that the introduction of yet more genetically modified mozzies can save the situation! Continue reading
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People’s Assembly: We must support the Junior Doctors’ Strike
11 January 2016 — The People’s Assembly Against Austerity The Junior Doctors will commence their first day of Industrial Action tomorrow. The BMA has stated “it is clear that the government is still not taking junior doctors’ concerns seriously… repeatedly dragged its feet throughout this process, initially rejecting our offer of talks and failing to… Continue reading
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We say NO to Care.data
A majority of 38 Degrees members support the idea of sharing anonymised data for life-saving medical research – as long as we can be convinced that the data is kept securely. But we are united in our opposition to this data being shared with profit-making companies, for any purpose. Continue reading
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NHS: Jeremy Hunt doesn’t want you to read this
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is trying to sneak through new NHS plans. The Guardian newspaper has revealed that a key NHS blueprint has been slipped out. Even though the public have a right to comment, the government “has deliberately kept it quiet”. Because of this cover-up, we’ve now got just over 24 hours to flood… Continue reading
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Care.data: They never give up
The government is trying to push through the plan that would allow private companies to access our personal medical data and increase privatisation of the NHS. But together, we could stop it. Continue reading
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The NHS sells you and your soul
This week saw the UK’s largest online pharmacy, Pharmacy2U, fined £130,000 for concealing its sale of names and addresses of NHS patients to quacks and charlatans. Quite literally – the companies who bought patients details were selling “alternative” treatments and lottery scams. Continue reading
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The NHS Needs Emergency Funding Now!
It’s official: unless £2bn is urgently given to struggling hospitals, A&E waiting times will go up, cancer treatment will be delayed, and it’ll be impossible for hospitals to provide beds for people in need this winter. Continue reading
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The NHS winter is coming – what’s the one thing all progressive politicians must do to save it? By Caroline Molloy
All week we’ve been waiting for the figures that would show just how bad the scale of the NHS financial crisis was. The regulator, Monitor, had been ‘leaned on’ to delay publication til after the Tory Party Conference. And no wonder. The figures that were finally released today were bad. Really bad. NHS Trusts and… Continue reading
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Labour values, the NHS and me By Marcus Chown
Last week I received an e-mail from the Labour Party telling me it had reason to believe I did not support its aims and beliefs and it was excluding me from voting in the leadership election. I have voted Labour in every election since I was 18. I have been a full member of the… Continue reading
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Nasty party’s racist policies damage the NHS By John Lister
Nurses forced to leave Britain, new charging systems being set up even for emergency care – Tory policies are damaging the NHS, writes John Lister in an article from the latest Keep Our NHS Public newsletter. The NHS is already suffering as a result of racist changes to the rules governing non-EU staff, even as… Continue reading
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The NHS stays centre stage as the political ground shakes By Tony O’Sullivan
As Labour’s newly elected leader throws down the gauntlet on undoing NHS privatisation, the Tory ideological and financial attacks on our health service are escalating. Continue reading
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NHS privatisation is destroying our health service
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. This is what happens when private companies get their hands on our NHS. Continue reading
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Researching health companies: a web search guide By Caroline Molloy and Richard Whittell
How to uncover the facts about the companies involved in NHS privatisation – a joint OurNHS/Corporate Watch guide, and the first in a series of bite-sized OurNHS guides to NHS campaigning. Continue reading