'No NHS in England from 2013'. Is there anything we can do to save it?

[Solopower]

'In 2012, parliament in England passed a law effectively ending the NHS by abolishing the 60-year duty on the government to secure and provide healthcare for all. From 2013, there will be no National Health Service in England, and tax funding will increasingly flow to global healthcare corporations. In contrast, Scotland and Wales will continue to have a publicly accountable national health service.

NHS hospitals and services are being sold off or incorporated; land and buildings are being turned over to bankers and equity investors. RBS, Assura, Serco and Carillion, to name but a few, are raking in billions in taxpayer funds for leasing out and part-operating PFI hospitals, community clinics and GP surgeries that we once owned.'

Allyson Pollock in The Guardian.

Well I'm scared. Life is going to get so much harder for the vast majority of us. I'm grateful to people like Pollock and Dr Mark Porter for trying to alert us to what is happening, but what can we do about it?

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/27/nhs-privatisation-toxic-world-healthcare

Then there's the 'rationing' of services, which is already happening. But now, apparently, 'the NHS is offering some GPs surgeries extra money if they send fewer patients for tests and treatment in hospital ... '

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/31/nhs-rationing-risking-lives-doctors-leader?newsfeed=true

It seems to be government policy to wind down the NHS so that it can't do its job and no-one is sorry to see it go in the end ...

I suggest bloody revolution, but doubt many would join in.

It is very scary, I'd join in a revolution/protest but the issue is so big I have no idea where to begin.

Plus, if the revolution was that bloody, we'd need the NHS to patch us up, wouldn't we?

That's the point. We need the NHS at all ages and stages of life. Free health care for everyone, paid for by our taxes. How can we get it back??

I'm beyond livid about this.Why aren't people jumping up and down about it?What can we do???Somebody needs to get organised and start building support-it was done with the forests.

That's the problem though, isn't it? We all clutch our pearls and wail that somebody should do something. But not one of us are prepared to be that somebody.

And that's what the government is relying on - us all being spineless sheep.

I'm livid about it.

Insurance, yes, definitely. Imo this is very much part of the govt's plans - to get us all to take out health insurance.

What's co-pays?

I'm glad someone is shouting it from the rooftops - it's been there all along ever since the first draft of the health bill, but no-one's ever pointed it out. All the controversy over other issues, which were appalling but minor in comparison.

It's what the Tories have wanted ever since 1948 - and they've finally succeeded without anyone noticing. No-one voted to kill the NHS, they have NO mandate for this, it's pure ideology.

One of the most repellent features of this dog's dinner of a law is that local GP commissioning groups now have the power to define what services are part of the NHS and what aren't. Everything we've seen about postcode lotteries is about to pale into insignificance.

if you want to do something about it, you could join these guys as well as lobbying your MP, so they know people are watching.

Why isn't Ed Miliband kicking up a fuss?

and have a look here - doctors and health workers setting up a political party to stand against any of the lying bastards who voted for the bill. Kidderminster shows MPs can be elected on the single issue of the NHS - maybe it could happen again but on a wider basis?

Healthcare will continue to be universally available, free at the point of need and funded out of central coffers. We need it to be the highest possible quality and that requires investment and innovation. Whether the letters NHS or something else appear on the headed paper is not really important. Indeed, other European countries manage to provide fantastic public health services by merging private company expertise with government money. There is no suggestion that everyone has to take out private insurance.

Bonnie - good question, I think Labour was hamstrung to an extent because the Tories were building on Blairite policies. Pushing them to the extremes, but building a 100 storey tower block on the foundations the Blair government prepared. The thing is Blair and Milburn (the then health secretary) never intended them to be taken this far.

From working in a hospital I'm already seeing the changes. Hospitals are very much run as businesses with business managers and accountants in charge. Each dept/ward is a separate business, so if another ward want to have some drugs as they've run out we're meant to say no. Or chase them the next day for a replacement box of drugs. We're not allowed any paperclips, elastic bands, treasury tags,etc. I was nearly shot once for changing the photocopier toner.

We have to make a note of every phone call we answer as we get paid over £30 per phone call. God knows who pays us this £30 per phone call.

anyone who says the NHS is merely a brand is a lying weasel who is actually out to abolish it. At least have the honestly to admit it.

Ed Milliband isn't kicking up a fuss because the public private initiative in which various functions within the health service were taken up by private companies was introduced by Labour. Anyone who has been recently referred by their NHS GP for something like physiotherapy, for example, may well have been treated by a private company.

But someone like me, who has multiple pre-existing conditions, just will NOT be able to afford insurance payments that would be more each month than we get in benefits. If we could even be accepted at all - in one job, though private health care was a perk of the job, due to my pre-existing conditions, the employers insurance company refused to cover me...

What the FUCK would I, or my DC's do, without insurance?!

But the point is Cognito the vast maj if they knew and how it's part of the snowball effect wouldn't want it.I want NHS care not private,I don't want my taxes going to private companies I want it going to the NHS.

Brilliant, Edam, thanks for that link. I was hoping there would be something like this.

This is what it says we can do. I'm going to try to work through them, one by one.

'Join Keep Our NHS Public

Write to your MP - make use of our template letters.

Sign the NHS Support Federation National e-Petition to oppose proposals in the new government White Paper which threaten to break-up NHS services.

Get your friends, work colleagues, trade union branch, pensioners group, community organisation or hospital campaign to join up, too, and make a donation to kick off a local campaign.

Set up a local meeting to bring together campaigners to defend your local services.

Make a donation to the campaign.

Set up a local branch of Keep Our NHS Public, or campaign alongside other community groups and campaigners under this banner

Lobby local MPs, councillors and NHS organisations demanding a halt to cuts, privatisation and commercialisation of health care

Build a public event - contact us for a list of possible speakers.

Help us build a movement big enough to force a change. See our campaigner's checklist for more information and ideas.

Read Richard Stein's guide to patients' legal rights

Read Ursula Pearce's note on what you can do if services are being withdrawn

Read leaflet Pensioners in Danger - Fight for Your Rights

Read How you can challenge Independent Sector Treatment Centres

Read Save Our Surgery Tips to Help - tips for fighting GP takeovers, by Sally Ruane

For further details about joining Keep Our NHS Public and how you can be involved, download our flyer.'