15 Campaigners @ NHS75
It’s July 2023, OUR NHS is 75, and we’re at Seaburn beach and then Durham Miners Gala.
KONP North East asks 15 Campaigners what we, collectively, need to do for the NHS to get to 100…..
CLICK HERE
to watch a ten minute video and hear from:
Dr Pam Wortley (KONP Sunderland),
Dr Helen Groom (KONP North East),
Mark Greenfield (KONP Sunderland),
Dr John Puntis (Co-Chair, National KONP),
Laura Murrell (Secretary, KONP Sunderland),
Roger Nettleship (Chair, Save South Tyneside Hospital Campaign),
Vicki Gilbert (Community Activist),
Dr Helen Murrell (KONP North East),
Alec McFadden (KONP Sunderland),
Prof Allyson Pollock (Newcastle University),
Mark Ladbrooke (Chair, Socialist Health Association),
Keith Venables (Health Campaigns Together),
Tony Dowling (Chair, North East Peoples Assembly),
Mike Forster (Chair, Health Campaigns Together),
Jude Letham (Co-Ordinator, KONP North East).
KONP North East thanks all fifteen contributors
#OURNHS @ 75
5th July 2023: KONP Sunderland and District celebrate 75 years of #OURNHS
The sand sculpture and speeches at Seaburn beach today make the situation crystal clear. Happy Birthday NHS – thank you, and may you return to be a publicly-provided and national healthcare system. We stand by you all the way.
KONP Sunderland write: Nationally, KONP has been taking action for over 15 years to protect our health service from cuts and privatisation. It is the largest and longest running health campaign in the UK. KONP Sunderland & District was formed in 2017 to work with the Save South Tyneside Hospital campaign opposing cuts in maternity and acute services in Sunderland and South Tyneside. We also campaigned against the cuts to urgent care services including the closure of the walk-in centres across Sunderland.
Today we mark a momentous achievement in our history. The NHS was founded in 1948 to ensure healthcare was accessible to all and not just the wealthy. It was the world’s first health service which aimed to provide universal, comprehensive and free health care. We celebrate those founding values which put our communities and patients first, which shine through in the work of our doctors, nurses, and health workers every day. Even with the problems the NHS faces today, we have a huge amount to be proud of in the NHS, and a huge amount to be grateful for, especially the hard work carried out by its dedicated staff
Most of were born under the NHS and for 75 incredible years the NHS has been looking after us. For all of us it’s been there at key moments in our lives – fixing our broken bones, carrying out vital surgery, or giving critical care to those we love. So, we don’t often get the chance to properly express how grateful we are for the NHS. But today is the perfect occasion to show our appreciation for this cherished institution and its amazing staff.
We hope that the giant heart sculpture we have created today illustrates the affection that we all have for the NHS and it can act as a powerful visual message that we value this treasured institution and want it to be protected
Chronicle: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/health/gallery/nhs-75-birthday-pictures-hearts-27264761
Sunderland Echo: https://www.sunderlandecho.com/health/giant-love-heart-created-on-seaburn-beach-to-celebrate-75th-birthday-of-the-nhs-4208482
Contact: https://www.facebook.com/KONPSD
The emotional demands of caring for others
People Not Profit
Johannah Churchill – North East nurse, photographer, and nurse photographer – depicts life in the NHS. No verbal explanation or interpretation required….
A huge THANK YOU to Johannah:
What a powerful Exhibition.
Thank you, Johannah Churchill, for so accurately portraying the emotional demands of caring for others – shown especially in your photographs taken at the time of Covid. Your beautiful and evocative work clearly demonstrates that there is no more an important a job as looking after others at their time of need – and workers in the NHS do this, day in and day out. Thank you, also, for your spirit of generosity in setting up this extraordinary Exhibition in the first place, and in donating all proceeds to KONP locally. We picked up, in many ways, a very special empathy and thoughtfulness from the NHS workers in the portraits and, also, the same qualities in yourself behind the camera and in planning and instigating this work. Thank you from all at KONP North East.
Exhibition notes:
The show features a selection of Churchill’s powerful and emotive NHS worker portraits, exploring art and photography as a means of protest. This pop-up exhibition was conceived as a public response to mounting concerns over the right to strike in the UK. Amongst the many images featured in the show is Churchill’s iconic portrait ‘Melanie March 2020’ (above) a haunting depiction of a nurse at the beginning of lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Johannah Churchill is a portrait and documentary photographer based in Sunderland. Themes encompassing loss, illness and isolation are frequently referenced throughout her work. Her practice is often interwoven with her history as a nurse. Her most known bodies of work draw attention to the emotional complexities of ‘care’ and its impact on the carer.
Churchill’s work has been featured in many publications including the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian and the British Journal of Photography amongst others. Her work is held by the National Portrait Gallery, The Wellcome Collection and Sunderland Winter Gardens.
The Exhibition is located at Pop Recs, 172 – 175 High Street West, Sunderland, and the closing date has been extended to (at least) Saturday 1st July 2023. Pop Recs states that it proudly stands in solidarity with NHS workers.
Two recent reviews:
https://www.culturednortheast.co.uk/2023/06/20/people-not-profit-exhibition-at-pop-recs/
https://www.sunderlandecho.com/whats-on/things-to-do/exhibition-featuring-iconic-images-of-nhs-pandemic-workers-extends-run-at-sunderlands-pop-recs-4197152
Life’s a tightrope walk, You don’t want a hole in your safety net
No Profit in Pain – Gruff Rhys
Click here for the track No Profit in Pain – commissioned by National Theatre Wales five years ago, at the time of the NHS 70th Anniversary. It does, of course, and sadly, remain relevant today. KONPNE can think of no better anthem for the NHS at the time of its 75th Anniversary…..
“Well I’m NHS bornAnd NHS bredAnd when I die let me be NHS deadLife’s a tightrope walk,You don’t want a hole in your safety net”
http://bit.ly/NoProfitInPain
Newcastle Debates: The Future of the NHS
John Whalley, Mental Health Nurse / Psychological Therapist (retired), Newcastle-upon-Tyne
How can we balance increasing costs with delivering a quality service? And what can we do to better support NHS staff?
Hosted by Newcastle University, an evening of debate and discussion about the future of the NHS was promised for 5th June 2023, with panellists comprising Professor Clare Bambra (Professor of Public Health, Newcastle University), Dr Guy Pilkington (GP and Chair of the Prevention Board for the North East and North Cumbria ICS), Dr Benjamin Ajibade (Assistant Professor, Nursing, Midwifery & Health, Northumbria University) and James Duncan (CNTW NHS Trust). The panel was chaired by Jane Robinson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Engagement and Place, Newcastle University.
Sadly, reality overshadowed promise and, to me at least, the evening was typified by 75% lack lustre and unremarkable comment. What could have been a springboard to searching and frank questioning and debate was, in fact, very different. In addition to one or two surprising comments (one panellist outlined his support for the use of the private sector in tackling the waiting list, but without acknowledging any associated compromising issues with this, and another panellist advocated the primary need for the NHS to look to ways of actually saving money, but without acknowledging the savage financial cuts to some services…), there were a number of unsubstantiated platitudes. One or two panellists made nebulous commitments to the future of “Our NHS” but, given that the NHS is on the back foot, it would have been good to hear what they were actually doing about it (although, in fairness, it was a debate rather than a hustings or campaign meeting or political rally).
The nitty gritty was clearly pinned down by one panellist in extra time. The elephant (aka NHS privatisation) remained in the lecture hall, unacknowledged, until sanity was preserved by Professor Clare Bambra, who specified her view that, as far as the Government and the future of the NHS is concerned, it is clear that all is on the table (ref: recent trade agreements – readers will remember The Trade Act 2021 which makes provision for the implementation of international trade agreements, in effect opening up the NHS to further large-scale takeovers from international corporations) and that the NHS is at a potential turning point (re significant further privatisation and contracting out). Thank you, Professor Bambra, we agree whole heartedly. We all know that, over the past decade, Government policy has placed the NHS in a precarious and dangerous position, now moreso than ever, and this fact and reality needs to be spelled out and placed centre-stage in all conversations and discussions – and debates.
The Newcastle University video of the debate may be viewed here.
Members of KONPNE were in the audience, two of our questions were received by the panel, these were tackled but lack of time negated full responses from the panel. We repeat these here – for further repeating and placing centre-stage.
“Labour Party policy appears to advocate the use of the independent sector to bring down waiting lists. This involves using NHS-trained doctors and nurses, and has an impact on staffing in the NHS. Your thoughts?”
“I am a member of Keep Our NHS Public North East – campaigning against the privatisation of our NHS, We’ve been present in the North East for the past twelve years. Quite rightly, there has been much talk tonight about the prevention of ill health, people taking their own responsibility for health, an aging population, the care sector, better financial management by services. All of these are important – but, with respect to the panel, we are ignoring the elephant in the room. Does the panel agree that the issue is mainly politically driven, and reflects political ideals, a corrupt “chumocracy”, and a drive to a two-tier health system, underpinned by health insurance and shareholders creaming off profit. Does the panel agree that what we are seeing is a strategic, planned, long-term, politically-driven, intentional run-down of a publicly-provided and publicly-funded healthcare system to enable a growth in the private sector. THAT is the main issue”.
Poor response from new “Integrated Care Board” in North East
Open? Transparent? Collaborative? Full engagement? Maybe NENC ICS need to walk the walk, as well as talking the talk
John Whalley, Mental Health Nurse / Psychological Therapist (retired), Newcastle-upon-Tyne
“North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System” (NENC ICS) has been responsible for commissioning all health care in the region since July 2022. There are, of course, major difficulties with this organisational system, and these are identified on our webpage here.
The Board of the ICS meets every two months and, on reading the Agenda and papers for 28th March 2023 Board meeting, members of KONPNE were shocked to see the number of services in the region which, following CQC inspections, “require improvement” and, also, the required overall “efficiency” target of £48.4 million – all evidence of underfunding and the Governments strategic run down of NHS provision. Click here for the “Integrated Delivery Report” – scroll to item 8:1 on page 96
>> OUR QUESTION: With regard to this important issue, we submitted the following question to the March 2023 ICS Board meeting:
“Keep Our NHS Public North East (KONPNE) is a group of people who strongly believe that the NHS should remain a public service.
Members of KONPNE are very concerned to read in the North East North Cumbria ICB: Integrated Delivery Report February 2023 (Agenda Item 8.1) that a number of services within the ICS are inadequate, according to the CQC. We are aware that the Board have noted this.
Please detail, specifically, what the Board’s plans are for addressing this situation, given the requirement for the ICB to meet an overall efficiency target of £48.4 million”
>> THE VERBAL FEEDBACK to our question at the meeting was astonishing in both content and brevity. The person who made the response (we remain unsure who it was, as no surname or role was provided) seemed keen to assure that there was nothing to see here, as follows:
No services were rated as OVER-ALL inadequate; North East Ambulance Service was rated inadequate in part and a support package has been put together to look at elements of that (yes – but our question asked for specific details, which we need to know about)
There is a need for Enhanced Surveillance of some services (yes….details…?)
KONPNE notes that CQC rated a number of other services as “requires improvement” (this issue wasn’t developed in the response – it would have been a good opportunity to update on the actions regarding these services, instead of closing the question down)
Apparently the requirement to bank £48.4million in efficiency savings (flowery name – we know this as BUDGET CUTS) won’t affect the budgets of the services which require improvement (- so end of subject there, apparently no need to expand on that point….)
And the so-called “efficiency savings” / cuts will be made on “prescribing and CSE packages of care” (information about the effects of this and action plan regarding these services would have been useful).
Thus, in short, we feel this to be a minimal and superficial reply to an important issue, deserving of a considered and respectful verbal response. Click here to watch the video of the verbal response – click on the image for 28th March, go to 3:28 on the timer slide at the bottom of the video, and don’t blink.
>> As for the WRITTEN FEEDBACK to our question…. o dear, o dear…. the following, ….err….exceptionally brief written response was received from the ICB on April 23rd 2023, three weeks after the meeting….. what can we say…..:
“Thank you for your question.
None of the 11 provider organisations in the ICB are rated as inadequate overall. In North East Ambulance Service’s (NEAS) recent inspection, they were rated as inadequate for Well Led but overall as requires improvement. NEAS are being supported by the ICB to work through the actions identified by the CQC.”
>> KONPNE: Obviously, “North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board” need to do better regarding public involvement. We read on the ICB website that “The ICB is committed to providing clear and accessible public information to build understanding and trust….. The ICB will provide good quality accessible information that meets the needs of all people in our communities”. There’s some way to go, then. We will, of course, be writing to the ICB regarding their paucity of response and seeking more information about these issues.
>> PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT: And while we’re about it – some issues for the Board to develop around the PROCESS of public accessibility to the Board meeting…. that is, if true public involvement is to be welcomed….
1) We need to know who is speaking? Important for all verbal reports, but especially for the response to the public question! 2) The time period between the publication of the Agenda and the cut off date for the receipt of questions to the Board was NIL for both the November 2022 and January 2023 Board meetings and ONE DAY for the March 2023 meeting. Given that the Board meets every two months, this window for submitting a question is either non-existant or ridiculously small and is an indisputable barrier to involvement 3) We query why a question from the public to the Board must be based on the Boards’ Agenda? We require an openness and willingness to engage with the patient agenda regarding Board activity 4) Placing questions from the public at the very end of the meeting gives a message of reduced importance and can, furthermore, add another barrier to engagement for people with certain health or attentional difficulties. It is useful to note that questions from the public are at the start of the local full Council meetings. 5) An option to ask the question in person and a right to reply would be welcomed 6) Space is required on the agenda for receipt of petitions.
We will be contacting the ICB about these issues as a matter of priority.
UPDATE 15.5.23:
– We have contacted all seven Healthwatch organisations in the NE, so that they are aware of our concerns.
– NENC ICS have been in touch to offer a meeting to discuss our concerns – this is a positive development, we intend to accept this offer and will keep you updated.
Enough is Enough
The Royal College of Nursing is currently balloting for strike action, putting patient safety at the heart of the campaign. Unless we address workforce shortages and staff pay and conditions things will not improve.
Angela, North East resident, KONPNE supporter and Nurse (retired) speaks from experience
We at Keep Our NHS Public care passionately about the NHS and the people who work in it. We are demanding a pay increase for all NHS staff and an end to NHS privatisation.
I recently retired as a registered nurse. I have worked at home and abroad in hospital and community settings. The emphasis on patient care rather than profit differentiates the NHS from anywhere else I have worked. The Tories were against the NHS when it was formed in 1948 and they want to see it privatised now.
Recently, the Health And Care Act was carefully rushed through Parliament, avoiding media coverage. There is no longer a NATIONAL Health Service – it has been split into 42 parts, called Integrated Care Systems. We believe that this Act drives the NHS further down the road of privatisation. Integrated Care Boards can now decide which services will be provided and who provides them. The NHS will no longer be the default provider. The NHS is in crisis – the Government would have you believe this is due to the pandemic when, in fact, there have been years of underfunding and outsourcing of services.
Let’s not forget the suffering of essential workers during Covid. Healthcare workers were caring for patients with no or inadequate PPE, and many healthcare workers died . The government awarded contracts for PPE to totally unsuitable providers, without any scrutiny – such was their concern for workers. There was a Fastlane for Tory friends and donors. Millions of pounds were wasted on PPE which was not fit for purpose. When it came to testing for Covid, they could have used proven local Public Health services , but instead they paid Serco and Sitel £37 Billion for a Test and Trace service which has been shown to have had no effect on the course of the pandemic. Who says there is no magic money tree?
Morale in the NHS is extremely low. NHS staff want to give you good care. A recent survey of tens of thousands of nurses showed that, on their last shift, a huge majority said there was not enough staff or time to give the care they wanted to. We want minimum staffing levels enshrined in law, as they are in Wales and Scotland. The government are refusing to do this.
The Health And Social Care Committee say there is a shortage of 50,000 nurses – we know that in the last year 40,000 nurses have left the NHS, with workplace stress and lack of work-life balance being some of the reasons cited for leaving. Whilst the committee made it clear that it is unacceptable that some nurses are struggling to feed their families, pay rent and travel to work, the Government ignored their calls for a meaningful pay rise. Last week’s budget will see the poorest in our society suffer even more. There is already talk of benefit cuts and cuts to public services.
The Royal College of Nursing is currently balloting for strike action. We are putting patient safety at the heart of our campaign. Unless we address workforce shortages and staff pay and conditions things will not improve. We are demanding a pay award of 5% above inflation. We are saying ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. We demand fair pay and working conditions so we can give you the care you deserve.
We are asking you to please support us. Thank you.
INFO: Click here for the Enough is Enough website
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Loud and clear from the North East
We need emergency investment now to rebuild a publicly provided NHS, deliver pay justice for health and care workers, and end private interests in the NHS.
The speakers at the February 2022 “SOS NHS” events in the North East tell it as it is at Newcastle Grey’s Monument, Tynemouth Longsands and Sunderland Seaburn Beach. One day = three rallies.
Julia Charlton, Senior Lecturer in Nursing (retired):
“Beyond this Spring, we will need legislation and change at the top to re-establish a fully publicly funded and provided national health service, protected from private companies who put profit before patients. We need a national care service, and we need to make the NHS the default provider for health service provision.
The NHS was once the best health care service in the world. It can be again. This Government has shown it won’t change course without pressure from below: but U-turns have occurred. It’s up to us to pile on that pressure”.
Click here for the full speech, Tynemouth, 26.2.22
Julia Charlton at Tynemouth Longsands, 26th February 2022
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Gail Ward, Organiser for “Disabled People Against Cuts” and “Protect Tynedale NHS”:
“We all need a healthcare system to be provided free at point of use, not the two tier systems that operate in USA and other countries. Integrated Care is not the answer to social care that many need and it’s not only the elderly, it is disabled people too. Many disabled people will be denied insurance on basis of pre-existing conditions. Are you really going to allow that to happen? All our lives are precious.
If we don’t stand up for the NHS now, then we will lose it”.
Click here for the full speech, Newcastle and Tynemouth, 26.2.22
Gail Ward, pictured at a previous rally
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Laura Murrell, Keep Our NHS Public Sunderland and District:
“If money can be raised to be wasted or to support a struggling private sector why can’t it be raised to invest in the NHS and build a stronger better public sector. But no – instead Rishi Sunak’s spending review locks in underspending on the NHS until 2025. It’s not good enough. Our NHS deserves better. Let’s actually do something to make the call for building back better mean something.
We must reverse the 6 million plus waiting lists, stop patients dying in the back of ambulances outside hospitals because there are no beds, or forcing people to wait all night for an emergency ambulance for a suspected stroke only to be told in the morning that they have to drive 34-mile, a one hour journey, to that county’s only Accident and Emergency Department.
The NHS was once the best health care service in the world. It can be again.”
Click here for the full speech, Seaburn, 26.2.22
Laura Murrell at Seaburn, 26th February 2022
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Roger Nettleship, Chair of “Save South Tyneside Hospital Campaign”:
“The necessity is for a public healthcare system that is human centred. A human centred system is where health staff and the communities engage to provide health and social care that is accessible to all day and night. For a modern borough like South Tyneside with a growing population 160,000 plus it is not acceptable that our hospitals do not provide full maternity services, a consultant led Children’s led A&E and and A&E with all the acute services necessary.
It is the people who should decide. They are our hospitals, they are our workplaces and it is our NHS. Health care is a right!”
Click here for the full speech, Newcastle and Seaburn, 26.2.22
Roger Nettleship at Grey’s Monument, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 26th February 2022
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Dr Pam Wortley, retired GP and member of the “Socialist Health Association”:
“The Health and Social Care Bill is the greatest threat to socialised healthcare. The NHS will be broken up into 42 regional bodies, where even emergency care is no longer guaranteed. The private sector can sit on NHS Boards, with powers to decide what care to provide, based on finances, not clinical need. Deregulation of professional staff, and national pay, terms, and conditions, and pensions will be threatened through local pay deals to cut costs. Hospitals will no longer need to do social care checks before sending patients home. It will allow contracts for private profit, fragment the NHS, and make it harder for patients to obtain the care they need.
We will not allow our service to be privatised and sold off to American companies; America, where millions of people, unable to pay get no care or are forced into bankruptcy.
This must be stopped”.
Click here for the full speech, Newcastle and Seaburn, 26.2.22
Dr Pam Wortley at Seaburn, 26th February 2022
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Dr Helen Groom, retired GP, NHS campaigner and member of the “No to Hassockfield Campaign”:
“What horrifies me is that over the last few years, as a country, we seem to believe that there’s nothing we can do to stop the increased privatisation of the NHS. We can. We need to start giving our politician’s very clear and unambiguous messages…. So where are we now. We have a demoralised NHS workforce who understand that their employers, the government, are more interested in lining their own and their mate’s pockets than in supporting them to provide the best services. We have hospitals and ambulance services who have been stretched to their limits. Staff are exhausted and demoralised. Many are leaving in droves
WE NEED TO FIGHT THE CHARGING OF MIGRANTS AND THOSE SEEKING SANCTUARY. WE NEED TO FIGHT THE OPENING OF A PRISON FOR VULNERABLE WOMEN WHO HAVE SOUGHT SANCTUARY IN THE UK, ONLY TO BE IMPRISONED IN A CENTRE WHERE SHAREHOLDERS ARE MAKING PROFIT FROM THEIR MISERY. AS A RESULT OF THE ‘HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT’ WE ARE THE ONLY COUNTRY IN EUROPE THAT HAD INDEFINATE DETENTION”.
Click here for the full speech, Newcastle and Tynemouth, 26.2.22
Dr Helen Groom at Tynemouth Longsands, 26th February 2022
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Tony Dowling, Chair, North East Peoples Assembly:
“I get very annoyed these days when it seems that the person popping up everywhere to supposedly defend the NHS from this Tory government’s attacks is none other than former Tory Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt!! So I just want to remind people a little about Hunt.
Jeremy Hunt took over responsibility for the NHS in 2012 and was the longest-serving Health Secretary in history. By the time he left the post 6 years later, patient experience and staff morale had both taken a dramatic turn for the worse across many key indicators. The British Medical Association reported that by 2018 “the winter crisis” has truly been replaced by a year-round crisis. There were three times more patients waiting over four hours to be seen in A&E when Hunt left office than when he took over. Hunt oversaw years of historically low funding increases – around 1%, compared to an average of 6% in the years between 1997 and 2010, and compared to the 4.3% recommended by the Office of Budget Responsibility.
But perhaps most damagingly, he oversaw a significant cut to the amount that hospitals were paid per procedure. Meanwhile, it’s been quids in for the private companies routinely used to provide beds to make up the shortfall – Virgin Care, for instance, won almost £2 billion of contracts during Hunt’s tenure! Hunt’s legacy was: missed targets, lengthening waits, crumbling hospitals, missed opportunities, false solutions, funding boosts that vanished under scrutiny, and blaming everyone but himself.
That is the real story of Jeremy Hunt. So please remember that next time you hear him waxing lyrical and being given a free-pass all over our uncritical media! And we really should not be surprised. Because back in 2005, Hunt co-authored a book called ‘Direct Democracy’ which stated that: “Our ambition should be to break down the barriers between private and public provision” and that the NHS was “no longer relevant in the Twenty-first Century.” In effect, calling for the denationalising of our NHS!
Jeremy Hunt is no defender of the NHS. Like all Tories he tells ‘Tory lies’, so any defending of the NHS and fighting for the NHS is down to us”.
Click here for the full speech, Newcastle and Tynemouth, 26.2.22
Tony Dowling at Tynemouth Longsands, 26th February 2022
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Sean Fahey, Regional Secretary, North East Pensioners Association:
Re: Health and Care Bill / ICSs “There however seemed to be no comprehensive workforce strategy, no forecasting of supply and demand and no independent scrutiny/provision of this to allow for the needs to be fully funded and met. This is supposed to be about devolution and reduction of bureaucracy from the centre but the Secretary of State has introduced amendments which allow for direct intervention.
Re: Alternative Health Systems as in the USA “These are failed schemes. They cost double our, main source of household bankruptcy and the 3rd source of death in the system is medical error”.
Our Best System The NHS. Publicly funded by tax, publicly run and open to all at the point of need
Click here for the full speech, Newcastle and Tynemouth, 26.2.22
Sean Fahey at Grey’s Monument, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 26th February 2022
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Message of support from Kate Osborne MP (Jarrow):
The fact is however that the NHS is in crisis and under severe pressure. Staff are working long hours, exhausted by the last few years and many not receiving fair pay. The NHS is not being funded properly, services are being privatised and there is a huge backlog of patients. Locally, we have seen a dissemination of NHS services being cut or moved out of South Tyneside Hospital. That is why we must now all come together, and support SOS-NHS’ demands.
We need emergency funding of £20billion to save lives this winter. We need investment in a fully publicly owned NHS with a guarantee of free healthcare for future generations. And we need fair pay for NHS workers. Thank you all for coming along today and for all you do in keeping pressure on the Government surrounding these demands.
Click here for the message in full. to KONP Sunderland and District 26.2.22
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We are grateful to our other speakers – Joe Kirwin (Councillor and chair of North Tyneside health scrutiny committee), William Jarrett (Unite, Newcastle Hospitals Branch), Jude Letham (Keep Our NHS Public North East), Grace Dowswell (Psychologists for Social Change), Stacey Richardson (NHS Staff Voices, North East Peoples Assembly), and others. Thank you.
For a report on all of the NE “SOS NHS” events, please click our News page here and scroll down to 26th February 2022.
For guest blogs from North East poet Joan Hewitt about the Longsands event, click here (for poetry at Longsands) and here (for reflections)
….and click here for more info about the “SOS NHS” national coalition of health campaigns
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WE DEMAND:
(1) Approve emergency funding of £20 billion to save lives this winter
(2) Invest in a fully publicly owned NHS & guarantee free healthcare for future generations
(3) Pay staff properly: without fair pay, staffing shortages will cost lives
Who’s NHS??
OUR NHS
With 
from Newcastle, Tynemouth and Seaburn
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KONPNE meets monthly via Zoom: Join in with the Campaign, ALL are welcome – click here for details
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True North; two extremes
Poetry at Longsands
Joan Hewitt, award-winning Tynemouth Poet, describes an afternoon by the North Sea and we hear about two extremes: an inept Government and a NHS which shows many different kinds of love
Follow Joan at https://twitter.com/Tynemouthpoet and https://www.facebook.com/joan.hewitt.73
Joan Hewitt at Longsands, 26th February 2022
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I promised to post some of the poems read at Tynemouth’s Keep Our NHS Public North East event last Saturday.
First up is Harry Gallagher, Boro man in Cullercoats and true poet of the North. His introduction and first poems were really moving- but – as a consummate showman – he saw the shivering crowd needed warming up and got us yelling the word Lies at the end of each verse (cos let us not forget that Johnson must still be held accountable).
For Harry’s latest book, see True North – A Kiss for Your Soul
konpnortheast.com 