An NHS trust, working with the local authority in Newcastle, is to run a new ‘Lighthouse lab’ for Covid testing and tracing amidst growing evidence that the government’s privatised, delocalised ‘call-centre’ model (run by private firms Serco and Sitel) is failing to provide anything like an adequate service. (more…)
Covid-19 – Policy failure
Policy failure Richard Horton, editor of the prestigious medical journal ‘The Lancet’, described the management of COVID-19 as the “greatest science policy failure for a generation” in his book on the pandemic. Currently the numbers of newly diagnosed patients are steeply rising with many wondering if the government has completely lost its grip. So –….
Amnesty damn PPE provision for health workers
A timely and shocking report compiled by ‘Amnesty International’ opens with the stark figure of 3000 health workers losing their lives due to the global COVID-19 pandemic up to the time of writing, with a warning that this figure: (more…)
Public sector pay freeze protests 8 August
Keep Our NHS Public and Health Campaigns Together are supporting a series of protests for Saturday 8 August, over the government’s refusal to include NHS workers in any pay increase deal this year, despite the massive sacrifices made during the pandemic. Please join your local meeting if you can: (more…)
The Immigration Health Surcharge and the Value of Migrants
On 21st May, the UK Government scrapped the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) for migrant NHS staff and care workers – a fee which migrant workers must pay in order to access the NHS, in addition to ever-increasing Tier 2 work visafees [1]. This exemption was sorely needed and long fought for, particularly since the government….
Join the party! Our NHS Anniversary Weekend 4-5 July
The weekend of 4th and 5th July will be the 72nd anniversary of the founding of our NHS, and we are joining Keep Our NHS Public, Health Campaigns Together, People’s Assembly and We Own It, in calling a weekend of events to wish our NHS a happy birthday and demand its restoration as a well-funded, universal public service available to all. KONP are also….