1,000 signatures reached
To: The Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt
No Americanisation of our NHS. Stop the ACOs. Full public scrutiny now.
ACOs are Accountable Care Organisations. Conceived in the USA they are non-NHS bodies who will receive public funding to take over the running of our NHS. They are to be introduced without public consultation.
Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt must consult the people of England before introducing ACOs into the NHS.
Why is this important?
"(The NHS) is being starved of funds and progressively dismantled and replaced with corporate structures known as Accountable Care Organisations which will facilitate the introduction of American-style healthcare systems."
(Allyson Pollock, Professor of Public Health. The Independent, November 3rd 2017)
World-renowned scientist Professor Stephen Hawking owes his life to the NHS. He has joined Professor Pollock and other eminent NHS campaigners in an urgent legal action against Jeremy Hunt and NHS England for a judicial review of their ACO plans. These are due for implementation in 2018: http://www.crowdjustice.com/case/jr4nhs-round2/
WHY ARE ACOs SUCH A CONCERN? ACOs derive from the USA's enormously expensive public/private healthcare systems. With their advent we, the public and taxpayers, will face having to pay increasingly for our healthcare costs. To get prompt, accessible treatment we will have to pay for it out of our own pockets and/or pay for health insurance.
Those of us who can't pay will face care rationing, delays, care denial and suffering for ourselves and those who matter to us. High risk patients, the sickness-prone and elderly, will face exclusion from care.
That’s because ACOs will allow private companies like Virgin and Circle, including insurance companies, sub-contractors and property companies, to take over control of the running of our NHS.
They will decide which services are provided and to whom; which services are to be provided free and which are to be charged. They will be paid more if they save money, encouraging cuts and reductions in services despite the risk to our health needs. They will receive NHS funding - our money - to do this.
Our trust in medical practitioners will be undermined by the knowledge that our healthcare providers will be motivated by commercial considerations.
This conversion of our NHS into a US-style public/private enterprise has been described by Professor Stephen Hawking as “an attack on the fundamental principles of the NHS”.
It is being done by stealth, at great speed, without proper public information and consultation, and without the necessary parliamentary scrutiny and legislation.
THAT'S WHY YOU MUST READ THIS PETITION PROPERLY. AND PLEASE SIGN IT.
NO, WE CAN'T AFFORD US-STYLE PRIVATISATION. It is NHS England's spending of huge sums on privatisation (estimated at £4.5 billion+ a year), rather than on rising public healthcare needs, that is a major factor in making the NHS 'unsustainable'.
Private companies, with their dividend payments, bank loan charges and add-on management fees, cost far more than state-funded, low interest, in-house provision.
NHS ENGLAND are also paying huge fees for private consultants with US interests like McKinsey and United Health subsidiary Optum. NHS England’s CEO Simon Stevens is a former United Health senior executive.
The lawyers, accountants, billing agents and added management for contracting NHS services add to the heavy costs of privatisation. Company secrecy laws obscure these costs.
PRIVATISATION - BAD FOR OUR HEALTH. BAD FOR OUR POCKETS. Studies, including by the World Health Organisation, show that the USA’s public/private healthcare systems, with their ACOs, cost far more than any other leading nation including the UK. Yet the USA consistently ranks lowest in healthcare quality and public access. We don’t want that here.
YES, WE CAN AFFORD A FULLY NATIONALISED NHS. The savings made by abolishing privatisation and renationalising the NHS would be a major step towards covering all our healthcare needs.
Modest tax increases on the best off and monetary interventions used by the authorities for bank bailouts and national debt financing since the 2008 Banking Crisis could be used for any NHS funding gaps. These have been market-friendly.
WHAT LEGISLATION DO WE NEED TO SAVE OUR NHS? The proposed NHS Reinstatement Bill is draft legislation for abolishing privatisation and re-establishing the NHS as a publicly-funded, publicly-run, publicly-accountable, all-round service for everyone.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP? Support legal actions (like Professor Hawking's) against the responsible authorities: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/jr4nhs-round3/
The legal action by claimants Professor Hawking, Professor Allyson Pollock and other eminent campaigners has won an important part of its case - Jeremy Hunt has been forced concede to having proper public consultations before he and NHS England can proceed with implementing any ACOs. And the judge has allowed that the case on the remaining points could proceed but ruled that the claimants must be liable for full legal costs, with no cap allowed on them. This means that CrowdJustice have had to launch another round of fundraising. This urgently needs support.
Write to your MP asap asking him/her to sign the Early Day Motion 660. This calls on the Government to provide parliamentary time to debate and vote on the ACO plans: http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2017-19/660
Write to your MP and local councillors asking them to support the NHS Reinstatement Bill: http://www.nhsbillnow.org/
PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION AND CIRCULATE IT AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE.
USEFUL INFORMATION:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-hunt-health-department-nhs-legal-action-americanise-privatisation-customers-id-pay-a8033986.html
Professor Allyson Pollock's much viewed TED talk (18 mins):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz5dl9fhj7o
NHS In Stitches (3 mins):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=93&v=2FxacqvVsok
