SOS NHS
Please support this new campaign SOS NHS
This important new campaign refuses to accept the continued decline and crisis of the NHS, and rejects government arguments that “record” funding is enough.
SOS NHS aims to build a powerful enough movement to force the government to make a major U-turn, to review and revise the Spending Review. We want no more wasted billions on private contracts such as we saw during the pandemic. We must invest in our NHS; restore and expand NHS capacity; repair or rebuild crumbing hospitals; reopen the unused NHS beds; invest in staff, with new targets for recruitment. For more detail on our aims please click HERE
With national support from the health unions, we are seeking support at local, regional and national level from health and other trade unions, as well as any campaigners or political parties that share our aims.
Several hundred people have already registered for the SOSNHS Online Rally on January 19.please add your name and tell your friends and colleagues!
Please support this new campaign SOS NHS
This important new campaign refuses to accept the continued decline and crisis of the NHS, and rejects government arguments that “record” funding is enough.
SOS NHS aims to build a powerful enough movement to force the government to make a major U-turn, to review and revise the Spending Review. We want no more wasted billions on private contracts such as we saw during the pandemic. We must invest in our NHS; restore and expand NHS capacity; repair or rebuild crumbing hospitals; reopen the unused NHS beds; invest in staff, with new targets for recruitment. For more detail on our aims please click HERE
With national support from the health unions, we are seeking support at local, regional and national level from health and other trade unions, as well as any campaigners or political parties that share our aims.
Several hundred people have already registered for the SOSNHS Online Rally on January 19.please add your name and tell your friends and colleagues!
Sussex Defend the NHS' letter to the Argus in response to the damning report about Maternity Services across the hospitals in our Trust.
13th December, 2021
Dear Sir/ Madam,
I wrote to you, on behalf of the campaign group Sussex Defend the NHS at the beginning of this year (15th January) with reference to the proposed merger of Western Sussex hospitals with Brighton and Sussex hospitals, to create University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, and this what I said:
In the middle of a pandemic, with almost every ward in the County given over to looking after Covid patients, and people with life-threatening conditions having their scheduled operations postponed, the Western Sussex management is engaged in a full-blown takeover of BSUHT, ploughing ahead with submitting a Full Business Case to the bosses at NHS England and devoting enormous energy and resources that would be better deployed in focussing on how to beat this pandemic.
Not content with writing to you, the group also contacted the local authority, and had a meeting on the 23rd February with several councillors, including the leader, Phelim McCafferty, where we spelt out the implications of the merger for residents of Brighton and Hove. The councillors offered some warm words, and suggested that we raise the matter with the full council, in July, after the merger was due to go ahead; nothing was to be done before then. Just for the record, we did attend the full council meeting, but very little credence was given to our concerns. We also attended the misleadingly-named Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) to apprise them of our concerns, but since that body is dominated by appointed representatives (voting and non-voting), rather than elected representatives, our concerns fell on deaf ears.
Since then, barely six months after the merger went ahead, consultants at the Sussex County wrote to the CEO of University Hospitals trust, Marianne Griffiths, and raised concerns about ‘clinical safety issues, gross operational inefficiencies, and burnout within our remaining staff groups’ concluding that ‘We are devastated to report that the care we aspire to is not being provided at UHS’ Predictably the trust’s medical director, Dr Rob Haigh, was wheeled out to assure everyone that safety was the trust’s “number one priority” (Argus 24th September), and it all went quiet again.
But clearly all was still not well, and after the midwives at the County organised a protest about safety issues, on 21st November, we now have the report by the Care Quality Commission which, amongst other things, identified staff shortages as a major issue, across all four maternity departments that are managed by the trust, infections were not well controlled, staff were not kept up to date with training in key skills, and, most damningly, “Staff did not feel respected, supported and valued and were not always clear about their roles and accountabilities.” This time around, the CEO herself has responded to these reports, assuring everyone that the trust is listening, and will allocate funds for a recruitment programme for 40 new midwives and obstetricians.
This of course is all very well, except that at the midwives’ protest, they made it clear that for every thirty midwives trained up, twenty-nine leave within a very short time of going operational, although to be fair, this is a story that is replicated across the country. And with Johnson’s announcement over the weekend that thousands of experienced NHS staff are to be deployed to carry through the vaccine booster programme, this will lead to the further erosion of in the numbers of front-line staff, not just in maternity departments but across the board. The consequences will be to accelerate the flow of staff leaving the service into a torrent, a massive haemorrhage, draining the NHS of its lifeblood, the dedicated men and women who joined to care for their fellow citizens, and whose goodwill has been stretched to breaking point by the cynical and exploitative policies of this government.
The consequences of the erosion of democracy in our country, the democratic deficit, are being felt throughout our society, and not just in the NHS, but it is the health of the nation that is at stake, and the responsibility for the steady disintegration of the healthcare system in this country has to be laid firmly at the door of successive Conservative governments, with their ideological hatred of the public sector and determination to open up all sectors of the economy to market forces, those same forces that have wreaked such destruction in so many services that ordinary people depend upon.
Sussex Defend the NHS therefore believes that the salvation of the NHS lies in supporting the people who populate its ranks, and tables the following demands.
That the 3% pay rise is an absolute insult, 4% is not enough, and that an immediate pay rise of 15% be given to all NHS workers on Agenda for Change conditions.
That the government immediately launches a massive national recruitment campaign in order to make good the shortfall of front-line staff, (nearly 90,000 vacancies according to the King’s Fund think-tank), and makes the funding available to all the service providers to carry that into effect.
And that there be a separate recruitment campaign for staff required to administer the Covid vaccine booster programme, and that front-line staff should not be deployed from their main roles, and should instead be able to both deal with the increase in Covid patients AND the backlog of people waiting for ‘elective’ surgery, those millions of people in the queue for routine operations, sometimes waiting for years, often in agony, for a slot to become available. This is an absolute scandal in a so-called civilised country, and one that needs to be rectified as a matter of urgency!
Our campaign motto is Workers, Campaigners, Communities, TOGETHER, and we welcome anyone who wants to join with us in fighting to defend the NHS against the pernicious policies of this Johnson government, as well as those zealously carrying through those policies, such as the CEO of UCH trust.
Yours sincerely,
S. J. Guy
On behalf of Sussex Defend the NHS.
13th December, 2021
Dear Sir/ Madam,
I wrote to you, on behalf of the campaign group Sussex Defend the NHS at the beginning of this year (15th January) with reference to the proposed merger of Western Sussex hospitals with Brighton and Sussex hospitals, to create University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, and this what I said:
In the middle of a pandemic, with almost every ward in the County given over to looking after Covid patients, and people with life-threatening conditions having their scheduled operations postponed, the Western Sussex management is engaged in a full-blown takeover of BSUHT, ploughing ahead with submitting a Full Business Case to the bosses at NHS England and devoting enormous energy and resources that would be better deployed in focussing on how to beat this pandemic.
Not content with writing to you, the group also contacted the local authority, and had a meeting on the 23rd February with several councillors, including the leader, Phelim McCafferty, where we spelt out the implications of the merger for residents of Brighton and Hove. The councillors offered some warm words, and suggested that we raise the matter with the full council, in July, after the merger was due to go ahead; nothing was to be done before then. Just for the record, we did attend the full council meeting, but very little credence was given to our concerns. We also attended the misleadingly-named Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) to apprise them of our concerns, but since that body is dominated by appointed representatives (voting and non-voting), rather than elected representatives, our concerns fell on deaf ears.
Since then, barely six months after the merger went ahead, consultants at the Sussex County wrote to the CEO of University Hospitals trust, Marianne Griffiths, and raised concerns about ‘clinical safety issues, gross operational inefficiencies, and burnout within our remaining staff groups’ concluding that ‘We are devastated to report that the care we aspire to is not being provided at UHS’ Predictably the trust’s medical director, Dr Rob Haigh, was wheeled out to assure everyone that safety was the trust’s “number one priority” (Argus 24th September), and it all went quiet again.
But clearly all was still not well, and after the midwives at the County organised a protest about safety issues, on 21st November, we now have the report by the Care Quality Commission which, amongst other things, identified staff shortages as a major issue, across all four maternity departments that are managed by the trust, infections were not well controlled, staff were not kept up to date with training in key skills, and, most damningly, “Staff did not feel respected, supported and valued and were not always clear about their roles and accountabilities.” This time around, the CEO herself has responded to these reports, assuring everyone that the trust is listening, and will allocate funds for a recruitment programme for 40 new midwives and obstetricians.
This of course is all very well, except that at the midwives’ protest, they made it clear that for every thirty midwives trained up, twenty-nine leave within a very short time of going operational, although to be fair, this is a story that is replicated across the country. And with Johnson’s announcement over the weekend that thousands of experienced NHS staff are to be deployed to carry through the vaccine booster programme, this will lead to the further erosion of in the numbers of front-line staff, not just in maternity departments but across the board. The consequences will be to accelerate the flow of staff leaving the service into a torrent, a massive haemorrhage, draining the NHS of its lifeblood, the dedicated men and women who joined to care for their fellow citizens, and whose goodwill has been stretched to breaking point by the cynical and exploitative policies of this government.
The consequences of the erosion of democracy in our country, the democratic deficit, are being felt throughout our society, and not just in the NHS, but it is the health of the nation that is at stake, and the responsibility for the steady disintegration of the healthcare system in this country has to be laid firmly at the door of successive Conservative governments, with their ideological hatred of the public sector and determination to open up all sectors of the economy to market forces, those same forces that have wreaked such destruction in so many services that ordinary people depend upon.
Sussex Defend the NHS therefore believes that the salvation of the NHS lies in supporting the people who populate its ranks, and tables the following demands.
That the 3% pay rise is an absolute insult, 4% is not enough, and that an immediate pay rise of 15% be given to all NHS workers on Agenda for Change conditions.
That the government immediately launches a massive national recruitment campaign in order to make good the shortfall of front-line staff, (nearly 90,000 vacancies according to the King’s Fund think-tank), and makes the funding available to all the service providers to carry that into effect.
And that there be a separate recruitment campaign for staff required to administer the Covid vaccine booster programme, and that front-line staff should not be deployed from their main roles, and should instead be able to both deal with the increase in Covid patients AND the backlog of people waiting for ‘elective’ surgery, those millions of people in the queue for routine operations, sometimes waiting for years, often in agony, for a slot to become available. This is an absolute scandal in a so-called civilised country, and one that needs to be rectified as a matter of urgency!
Our campaign motto is Workers, Campaigners, Communities, TOGETHER, and we welcome anyone who wants to join with us in fighting to defend the NHS against the pernicious policies of this Johnson government, as well as those zealously carrying through those policies, such as the CEO of UCH trust.
Yours sincerely,
S. J. Guy
On behalf of Sussex Defend the NHS.
Two weeks to save the NHS: Unite leads campaign to oppose the Health and Care bill
Celebrities and health workers will band together on 22 November to demand that members of parliament oppose the Health and Care Bill, which the government is trying to push through despite numerous warnings that it will be disastrous for the NHS and social care services.
Unite, the UK and Ireland’s leading union, which represents over 100,000 health workers across all occupations and professional groups, is committed to leading the campaign to oppose the bill. It warns there are now just two weeks to save the NHS from the dreadful effects of this bill.
The union is working alongside campaign organisations Health Campaigns Together, the newly formed Your NHS Needs You and stars including Stephen Fry, Jo Brand, Russell Brand, Francesca Martinez and Michael Rosen.
Read more here:
https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2021/november/two-weeks-to-save-the-nhs-unite-leads-campaign-to-oppose-the-health-and-care-bill/
Celebrities and health workers will band together on 22 November to demand that members of parliament oppose the Health and Care Bill, which the government is trying to push through despite numerous warnings that it will be disastrous for the NHS and social care services.
Unite, the UK and Ireland’s leading union, which represents over 100,000 health workers across all occupations and professional groups, is committed to leading the campaign to oppose the bill. It warns there are now just two weeks to save the NHS from the dreadful effects of this bill.
The union is working alongside campaign organisations Health Campaigns Together, the newly formed Your NHS Needs You and stars including Stephen Fry, Jo Brand, Russell Brand, Francesca Martinez and Michael Rosen.
Read more here:
https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2021/november/two-weeks-to-save-the-nhs-unite-leads-campaign-to-oppose-the-health-and-care-bill/
