You’re invited to join Sussex Defend Our NHS for a free film screening of NHS Borderlands.
When: Tuesday 14th June, 8pm
Where: Dorset Gardens Methodist Hall (Ground Floor), Dorset Gardens, Brighton BN2 1SA (map)
From Bare Life Films, NHS Borderlands is an investigative documentary exploring the human impact of
NHS charges on migrants.
The short film explores the story of Angela, who fled persecution in Zimbabwe only to be subjected to Hostile Environment immigration policies in the UK and charged £8,000 for vital medical care.
Angela’s story exposes the reality for thousands of people living in the UK who face charges for and exclusion from vital medical care, undermining the NHS’s founding commitment to universal healthcare.
This screening takes place during the Solidarity Knows No Borders Week of Action, where over 60 grassroots organisations are taking action to #EndTheHostileEnvironment. Find more information here about events from Patients Not Passports campaign groups over the course of the week.
Hope to see you at the screening!
When: Tuesday 14th June, 8pm
Where: Dorset Gardens Methodist Hall (Ground Floor), Dorset Gardens, Brighton BN2 1SA (map)
From Bare Life Films, NHS Borderlands is an investigative documentary exploring the human impact of
NHS charges on migrants.
The short film explores the story of Angela, who fled persecution in Zimbabwe only to be subjected to Hostile Environment immigration policies in the UK and charged £8,000 for vital medical care.
Angela’s story exposes the reality for thousands of people living in the UK who face charges for and exclusion from vital medical care, undermining the NHS’s founding commitment to universal healthcare.
This screening takes place during the Solidarity Knows No Borders Week of Action, where over 60 grassroots organisations are taking action to #EndTheHostileEnvironment. Find more information here about events from Patients Not Passports campaign groups over the course of the week.
Hope to see you at the screening!
Welcome to our April 2022 campaign update
As parliament appears to focus on the continued misdemeanours of the Prime Minister and the Government, the NHS is pushed further onto it's knees, further into privatisation, and further into major reorganisations that leave it's principles in tatters. Meanwhile patients are pushed into the arms of Private Health Care. No surprises here.
We do want to share with you one example of People triumphing over Profit though...Yes! Our Tug-of-war for the #SOSNHS Day of Action on 26th February was a great success. It's not too late to sign the #SOSNHS petition, and we'll look below at other campaign initiatives you can get involved with.
As parliament appears to focus on the continued misdemeanours of the Prime Minister and the Government, the NHS is pushed further onto it's knees, further into privatisation, and further into major reorganisations that leave it's principles in tatters. Meanwhile patients are pushed into the arms of Private Health Care. No surprises here.
We do want to share with you one example of People triumphing over Profit though...Yes! Our Tug-of-war for the #SOSNHS Day of Action on 26th February was a great success. It's not too late to sign the #SOSNHS petition, and we'll look below at other campaign initiatives you can get involved with.
Map of Privatisation and 'Rebuild the NHS'
The indefatigable Every Doctor UK have produced a 'living map' of privatised NHS services in England. Really helpfully they have included services that are run by charities and the not-for-profit sector (but not General Practice) that are commissioned by the NHS. We agree with their statement: "this systemic move to provide NHS services by non-NHS providers disrupts health infrastructure and fragments the service. As a publicly funded public health service, we strongly believe the NHS should be entirely funded, run and delivered by the public sector".
So, in Brighton and Hove you'll see that this includes Here - the not for profit social enterprise that has a contract to provide some well being services and most of the musculo skeletal services (MSK) within the city. This is why you'll see most GP practices on the map for Brighton & Hove. Do have a look at the map - we'll be highlighting this privatisation, and others at our May stall.
We'll also be using information and leaflets from We Own It who have launched their 'Rebuild the NHS' campaign - asking us to write to local Integrated Care Systems and Boards (ICB) (coming in to effect in July) to demand that private companies are kept out of the ICB's. Naturally our local ICB has pledged they won't be having any private companies on their board...but given non-NHS organisations are already deeply into our local structure, we aren't holding our breath. It is definitely worth as many people emailing as possible - so do look at both these campaign resources.
The indefatigable Every Doctor UK have produced a 'living map' of privatised NHS services in England. Really helpfully they have included services that are run by charities and the not-for-profit sector (but not General Practice) that are commissioned by the NHS. We agree with their statement: "this systemic move to provide NHS services by non-NHS providers disrupts health infrastructure and fragments the service. As a publicly funded public health service, we strongly believe the NHS should be entirely funded, run and delivered by the public sector".
So, in Brighton and Hove you'll see that this includes Here - the not for profit social enterprise that has a contract to provide some well being services and most of the musculo skeletal services (MSK) within the city. This is why you'll see most GP practices on the map for Brighton & Hove. Do have a look at the map - we'll be highlighting this privatisation, and others at our May stall.
We'll also be using information and leaflets from We Own It who have launched their 'Rebuild the NHS' campaign - asking us to write to local Integrated Care Systems and Boards (ICB) (coming in to effect in July) to demand that private companies are kept out of the ICB's. Naturally our local ICB has pledged they won't be having any private companies on their board...but given non-NHS organisations are already deeply into our local structure, we aren't holding our breath. It is definitely worth as many people emailing as possible - so do look at both these campaign resources.
Brighton Trades Council May Day rally: We can’t pay! We won’t pay!
Make the rich pay for the cost of living crisis!
Speakers TBC
12.30 The Clock Tower, Brighton
Make the rich pay for the cost of living crisis!
Speakers TBC
12.30 The Clock Tower, Brighton
SOS NHS!
SOS NHS is a new national coalition of NHS workers, campaigners and trade unions. Many groups are coming together to say, 'the NHS is in crisis right now' and these, briefly, are the 3 key demands:
SOS NHS is a new national coalition of NHS workers, campaigners and trade unions. Many groups are coming together to say, 'the NHS is in crisis right now' and these, briefly, are the 3 key demands:
- Emergency funding now to save lives this winter.
- Invest in fully publicly owned NHS.
- Pay staff properly; reduce staffing shortages.
Stop the Health and Care Bill 2021
We are in tough times... but it is heartening to see the role that campaigning has recently had in defeating some of the worst amendments of the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill. Our focus turns to the Health and Care Bill 2021, also currently going through the Lords, and which also needs defeating.
Stop the Merger
There is an active campaign by staff, governors and patients to stop the merger of Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead with University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust (UHSussex). A meeting is being held this week after the news that NHS England/Improvement have gone against the wishes of staff and patients and imposed this merger. They are concerned about the loss of the Specialist Services at this hospital - which covers patients in Kent, Surrey and Sussex. It is an all too familiar story...
Sussex Defend the NHS has expressed our concern over the mergers that resulted in UHSussex - resulting in damning verdicts from both staff and the CQC. Please support the Support Our Specialist Services QVH campaign!
We are in tough times... but it is heartening to see the role that campaigning has recently had in defeating some of the worst amendments of the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill. Our focus turns to the Health and Care Bill 2021, also currently going through the Lords, and which also needs defeating.
Stop the Merger
There is an active campaign by staff, governors and patients to stop the merger of Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead with University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust (UHSussex). A meeting is being held this week after the news that NHS England/Improvement have gone against the wishes of staff and patients and imposed this merger. They are concerned about the loss of the Specialist Services at this hospital - which covers patients in Kent, Surrey and Sussex. It is an all too familiar story...
Sussex Defend the NHS has expressed our concern over the mergers that resulted in UHSussex - resulting in damning verdicts from both staff and the CQC. Please support the Support Our Specialist Services QVH campaign!
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.
