nhs privatisation
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London: A talk on the politics of cancer in an age of austerity
On 2 July Wendy Savage and Hilary Wainwright join Mike Marqusee to launch his new book on the politics of cancer and NHS privatisation at Housmans bookshop in London. Continue reading
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Held hostage by Big Pharma By Mike Marqusee
In an exclusive extract from his forthcoming new book Mike Marqusee slams the drug companies exploiting his cancer to gouge the public purse. Continue reading
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Scots NHS satisfaction soars as England’s falls By Dave Watson
Since devolution, the NHS in Scotland has taken a very different path to that of NHS England. It has embraced co-operation rather than competition. And new figures show that Scots reckon that it delivers for them. Continue reading
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Nurses fight back against trade treaty that threatens NHS By Martin O’Beirne
The fight against an international trade treaty wrecking our NHS receives a boost from the nurses and activists, though most party leaderships are strangely quiet. Continue reading
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The Labour government was to blame for the NHS’s biggest disgrace – why should we listen to them now? By Caroline Molloy
The latest ex-Blair advisor to lambast the NHS for being ‘slow’ to adopt privatisation is Paul Corrigan. But his past hastiness had a little-noted role in the NHS’s darkest episode. If you were going to release a report arguing for the UK’s health system to become more like that of the United States, you probably… Continue reading
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Personal Health Budgets lead to individualism and isolation By Richard Blogger
A Thatcherite ‘voucher’ system is being imposed on the NHS is the worst way to deliver ‘personalisation’. From April 2015 all Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) must be able to offer Personal Health Budgets (PHBs) to all patients who have a long term condition (LTC). Personal Budgets were mentioned in the Conservative 2010 manifesto, but the… Continue reading
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How to commercialise and cut health and social care without anyone noticing By Jenny Shepherd
Plans to ‘create a local market’ in health and social care, including personal budgets, threaten to undermine our collective rights and our systems based on social solidarity. The final part in our View from the Grassroots series. Over the last week our ‘View from the Grassroots’ series has been looking at an interlocking set of… Continue reading
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What might a trip to your GP look like in future By Jonathan Tomlinson
The government’s plans for the future of primary care are long on gimmicks, but short on cash. Jonathan Tomlinson sees a more interesting vision of the future – if sufficient funding is there. Continue reading
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Will volunteers become the sticking plaster holding the NHS together? By Jenny Shepherd
Not a week goes by now without some part of the establishment warning us that the NHS is ‘unaffordable’ in its current form. This austerity mood music struck up in 2008 when New Labour asked the American management consultants McKinsey for advice on how to run the NHS more cheaply, after the government had spent… Continue reading
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Saving NHS money – or a bonanza for Big Pharma and Big Tech? By Jenny Shepherd
Are big NHS changes in England including local closures and more ‘care at home’ driven by the need to save money – or something else? The second of our View from the Grassroots series. Continue reading
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Are plans to move the NHS ‘into the community’, a wolf in sheep’s clothing? By Jenny Shepherd
Plans to close swathes of Yorkshire hospital services will ‘improve care’, say local NHS bosses. Campaigners are unconvinced. In the first of a four-part series Jenny Shepherd asks who – and what – is really behind similar claims being made across the country. Continue reading
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British NHS patients left without medications by private contractor By Tony Robson
The failure of UK private contractor Healthcare at Home (HaH) to provide the home delivery of medications correctly and on time has placed thousands of National Health Service (NHS) patients at risk…As many as 7 percent of patients have not been delivered their medications on time. In addition to the risk and anxiety these patients… Continue reading
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British care home scandal deepens By Mark Blackwood and Ajanta Silva
In a letter to the Daily Telegraph on May 30, the families of those abused in Winterbourne View said, “Today we have seen the appalling failure of the Government, the NHS [National Health Service] and Local Authorities to meet their own deadline for moving people with a learning disability out of places like Winterbourne View. Continue reading
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“Appalling” service by private firm leaves NHS patients without drugs By Melanie Newman
Healthcare watchdogs and patient groups slam private equity owned ‘Healthcare at Home’ whose failures are leaving frightened patients waiting for desperately needed drugs. Thousands of NHS patients, some seriously ill, have not received vital medicines on time because of problems at the company contracted to deliver the drugs to these patients in their own homes. Continue reading
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Renationalisation of the rail services? Why not start with the NHS? By David Zigmond
Labour is flirting with the idea of renationalising the railways – but it should start by renationalising the NHS. Continue reading
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NHS: “The worst thing a UK government has done to its people in my lifetime” By Marcus Chown
I’m a science writer. I usually write about the big bang and parallel universes black holes. But I was born in the NHS, my wife is an NHS nurse and I can see that the NHS is rapidly disappearing down a black hole. The NHS is one of the fairest, most efficient and cost-effective healthcare… Continue reading
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Three crucial safeguards for medical records proposed by leading voices on care.data By Caroline Malloy
Public health professor Allyson Pollock has called on parliament to pass three crucial amendments in next week’s care.data debate to ensure public health, not commercial interest, is at the heart of the new NHS IT system. Continue reading
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David Cameron praises ‘Health Heroes’ while he destroys the NHS By Tim Crocker-Buqué
In a Daily Mail campaign the Prime Minister deploys his personal tragedy and patronises health care workers as ‘angels in aprons’. Misleading rhetoric provides cover for Cameron’s legislative demolition of the NHS. Continue reading
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The only ‘parity’ for mental health is that it is being cut and privatised as well By Peter Beresford
Mental health services are amongst the hardest hit by cuts and privatisation. A new Charter suggests how people can build alliances and fight back. Continue reading
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Will Labour defend the NHS from the EU/US trade deal? By Linda Kaucher
Andy Burnham and John Healey’s statments on the risks to the NHS of the trade deal between the EU and the US seem at odds. Labour should be speaking clearly for the NHS. There is increasingly informed public concern about the relationship between the NHS and the huge US/EU ‘free trade’ agreement, the Transatlantic Trade… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 