“SOS NHS”
Information about the national coalition “SOS NHS”:
“SOS NHS” – OUR DEMANDS NATIONALLY:
> Approve emergency funding of £20 billion to save lives this winter
> Invest in a fully publicly owned NHS & guarantee free healthcare for future generations
> Pay staff properly: without fair pay, staffing shortages will cost lives
“SOS NHS” is a new national coalition of campaign groups, trade unions, organisations and individuals. So far, the “SOS NHS” campaign is backed by Keep Our NHS Public, Health Campaigns Together, People’s Assembly Against Austerity, Unite the Union, GMB, We Own It, NHS Support Federation, NHS Workers Say No, NHS Staff Voices, Doctors in Unite, Doctors for the NHS, UNISON, BFAWU, National Pensioners Convention, NHS Million, Migrants Organise, Green Party Trade Union Group, TSSA, National Education Union, PCS, SHA, NASUWT The Teachers Union, Medact, CWU, NUJ, Nurses United, RMT, Royal College of Midwives, Doctors Association, and more.
WE SPEAK AS ONE VOICE: To save lives, we need emergency funds now to make up for an annual deficit of around £35bn. We must recruit and retain more frontline staff and pay them properly. In the future, we need a return to a fully publicly funded and provided national health service, protected from private companies who put profit before patients.
In addition to the three initial demands (above), the 2022 SOS NHS Conference introduced a proposal for the following extended demands:
1. EMERGENCY AND LONG-TERM FUNDING
• Abandon the £12bn planned ‘savings’ and increase budgets to take into account inflation and pay rises; an immediate £20bn down payment is needed to start addressing urgently needed remedial interventions
• Invest in a fully publicly owned NHS and guarantee free health care for future generations
2. LOOK AFTER NHS AND CARE STAFF
• Substantial pay rise for NHS staff as negotiated by their unions
• Make life better for staff, e.g. by provision of free car parking, access to hot meals and rest facilities; child care facilities at work; flexible working; subsidised accommodation
Recruitment and retention
• Government to publish an annual workforce plan based on projected needs of population for health and care
• Bursaries for those training in health care (including allied health professionals) and payment of tuition fees where this is relevant
• Recruitment of staff from overseas to be underpinned by ethical principles, ensuring there is no loss of pay or inferior working conditions
• End visa charges and health surcharge for overseas staff, and give them the right to become British citizens
• Change pension rules to retain experienced NHS staff and remove barriers to retirees returning to work
• An immediate and urgent recruitment campaign to fill the 130,000 vacancies
Social care
• Social care free at the point of use, publicly funded and provided; radically reimagined and co-produced with service users, carers, workers and local communities
• Provide care workers with pay and conditions that reflect their high value and skills; minimum wage of £15/hr; training and career structure, with an immediate cost of living pay rise and for pay to be linked to inflation
3. BEDS AND INFRASTRUCTURE
• Increase inpatient beds based on assessment of population need and towards average bed/population ratio in comparable countries
• Urgent funding to reopen theatres, repair NHS buildings and replace old equipment
4. GENERAL PRACTICE
• Increase GP numbers by at least 6,000 together with 26,000 more practice nurses and receptionists
• Support general practice and stop the negative briefings against GPs; recognise the importance to patients and GPs of continuity of care
• Invest in upgrading GP premises
• Additional funding to be given to deprived communities and for preventive care and promoting population health
5. MENTAL HEALTH
• Mental health services should have parity of funding with those for physical illnesses
• Massive increases in NHS beds and staffing are necessary if demand for services is going to be met. This requires substantially more investment than has so far been forthcoming, especially in community based preventive services
6. PANDEMIC PLANNING
• The UK Covid-19 Inquiry must be fully transparent and independent of government bias
• Rebuild strong public health structures to be in place for dealing effectivelywith the current pandemic and in anticipation of the next
• To reduce risk of spread of infection, public health measures known to be effective must be promoted in addition to vaccination
• The principle of vaccine equity must be advanced both in the UK and on the international stage
7. DENTISTRY
• We demand that everyone should have access to an NHS dentist for ongoing care and treatment when needed
8. AN END TO PRIVATISATION
• We demand an end to all forms of NHS privatisation
• Social care must be publicly provided and funded
• Legislate for re-establishing a publicly funded, provided and accountable NHS based on its founding principles
9. REMEMBERING AND LEARNING FROM COVID
• Mourn those who have died from COVID-19 by maintaining the current memorial wall, establish both a new bank holiday and a monument to health and other key workers who have died, and educate our children about this pandemic and the lessons to be learned
• To incorporate the main findings of the KONP Covid Enquiry into current and future NHS practice
>>>> Click here for more info about these extended demands
>>>> For more info about SOS NHS, click here
>>>> To join in with SOS NHS and to find out what you can do to help, click here
>>>> And click here to read the article about the Campaign (The Lowdown, 19th January 2022)
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“SOS NHS” Events
>>>> SOS NHS supports NHS staff on strike
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>>>> SOS NHS National Demonstration – Saturday 11th March 2023, London
SOS NHS NATIONAL DEMO: ACT NOW TO SAVE OUR NHS!
The Government is quick to blame everyone and everything but themselves for the current crisis they have created in our NHS. Health Secretary, Steve Barclay told already exhausted NHS staff to work even harder if they want a pay rise. We believe it is the Government that should be working harder to fix a crisis caused by 13 years of its mismanagement.
We stand with all NHS staff forced to take strike action in order to protect the service from further damage and demand the Government changes course and finds the will to do what’s right for both staff and patients.
WE DEMAND THE GOVERNMENT FIXES THE CRISIS IN OUR NHS
for more info on the SOS NHS campaign page
&
for more info on the facebook event page
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>>>> National Day of Action: The NHS Crisis is a Crisis of Government – 28th January 2023
Grey’s Monument, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
The Tory Government are quick to blame everyone and everything but themselves for the current crisis they have created in our NHS. Health Secretary, Steve Barclay told already exhausted NHS staff to work even harder if they want a pay rise. We believe it is Steve Barclay and the Conservative Government who should be working harder to fix the current NHS crisis that is now costing lives at an unprecedented rate. The NHS Crisis is a Crisis of Government,
A great turn out today at the SOS NHS event at the Monument in Newcastle upon Tyne – much assistance from members of KONP North East, Unite Community and North East Peoples Assembly – all demanding an end to the crisis and showing support for striking NHS staff…. and much support from people in the town centre!! Many sign ups on the information stall, hundreds of leaflets distributed and many conversations.
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>>>> SOS NHS Conference: End the NHS Crisis Saturday 12 November 2022, 10am – 5pm, online and in person
The SOS NHS Conference 2022 provided a vital focus in bringing together key campaigners and NHS supporters.
The NHS is failing, not because of inherent flaws, but because the Government wants it to fail. Neither the new PM Rishi Sunak, the Health and Care Act, or Jeremy Hunt’s recent proposals for ‘virtual wards’ will deliver what we need. We demand a health and care service fit for all – and we invite you to play a part in winning just that.
Click here for the Conference pack, which provides details of the SOS NHS proposal of a range of extended demands.
Click here to watch the afternoon session of the Conference
Powerful speeches from over twenty speakers including
**Dr Tony O’Sullivan, Co-Chair @keepnhspublic: “Nurses are striking for the safety of patients and the integrity of the NHS, as well as fair pay and conditions”
**Kate Osborne MP (Jarrow) @KateOsborneMP “This year history has been made – 300K nurses have voted to strike. As always, I will join them on the picket line. We will ensure that they win”
**Rachel Bannister @JustTreatment “Anger creates energy. We need to fight to end the outsourcing of care to private profiteers”
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>>>> SOS NHS Day of Action Saturday 26th February 2022
STAND UP FOR THE NHS: Part of a national Day of Action for the NHS, and co-hosted by NE Peoples Assembly and KONPNE, the “SOS NHS” Rally in Newcastle demanded that the Government
> Approve emergency funding of £20 billion to save lives this winter
> Invest in a fully publicly owned NHS & guarantee free healthcare for future generations
> Pay staff properly: without fair pay, staffing shortages will cost lives
In 2010, after a decade of investment, our NHS was delivering its best-ever performance: after more than a decade of austerity – despite heroic efforts by staff – it has sunk to its worst-ever. The problems were there before the pandemic but have been deepened by the continued high level of Covid infections. We need emergency funds to save lives now.
Our line up of speakers, covering a wide range of health service topics, included**Dr Pam Wortley (Socialist Health Association) **Roger Nettleship (Save South Tyneside Hospital Campaign) **message from Gail Ward (Disabled People Against Cuts / Protect Tynedale NHS) **Sean Fahey (North East Pensioners Association) **Grace Dowswell (Psychologists for Social Change) **Dr Helen Groom (Retired GP, NHS campaigner and member of the “No to Hassockfield Campaign”) **Stacey Richardson (NHS Staff Voices, North East Peoples Assembly) **Jude Letham (Keep Our NHS Public North East) **with David McAllister (acoustic guitar and vocals). Many thanks to Tony Dowling (North East Peoples Assembly) for introducing the speakers.
Thank you to all. Events took place all over the country, and it is CRUCIAL we continue to work in a concerted manner to overcome the policies and actions of this regressive Government.
Organised and supported by local residents and by “Keep Our NHS Public North East”, the beach event at Tynemouth was a first for KONPNE!!
A celebration of #OURNHS, but with a very serious message relayed through a mix of superb music, poetry, speeches and a HUGE human sculpture in the sand for #OURNHS….all buffeted by a gentle wind, much sun (especially early on) and a little chill (especially towards the end). Many thanks to all who turned up to make the event so successful…..
Speeches:
**Dr Helen Groom (Retired GP, NHS campaigner and member of the “No to Hassockfield Campaign”) **Julia Charlton (Retired Nurse Tutor / Academic) **message from Gail Ward (Disabled People Against Cuts / Protect Tynedale NHS) **Joe Kirwin (Councillor and chair of North Tyneside health scrutiny committee) **William Jarrett (Unite, Newcastle Hospitals Branch) **message from a GP **Tony Dowling (North East Peoples Assembly) **Sean Fahey (North East Pensioners Association) **Jude Letham (Keep Our NHS Public North East)
Poetry:
**Harry Gallagher – Cullercoats poet. His book “Northern Lights” is a love letter to the people of the North, a region often buffeted and battered by stormy conditions but which in the end always prevails
**Joan Hewitt (Award-winning Tynemouth poet. Joan read a poem by Michael Rosen, whose treatment during a Covid- induced coma and long recovery left him with enormous gratitude to NHS staff.
fantastic acoustic sets:
**Pete Shaw – Artist and singer songwriter, Pete has appeared at the Cambridge Folk Festival, Brampton Live, WOMAD and many other festivals and venues across the UK. He is locally loved for his brilliant guitar- playing , warmth and cheeky humour
**Jimmy Ince – well-known and loved on the northeast music scene for his acoustic versions of standards, recents and rap, all delivered with a highly-individual twist.
and special thanks to:
**Mark Husmann – photographer extraordinaire
**Joan Hewitt – for boundless energy in event planning and organisation
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Thankyou
Thank you @KateOsborneMP for supporting the #SOSNHS coalition from the start.
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