Patient Participation Group

What is happening to the NHS?

Until recently the NHS has been one of the best and most cost-effective health care systems in the world. But it’s now in crisis, largely because of

The Health and Social Care Act (2012), which turned the NHS into a competitive market , accelerated privatisation, and made it vulnerable to inclusion in trade deals that could make privatisation irreversible.
Removal of government funding for capital projects, forcing many NHS organisations to use the Private Finance Initiative and take on unmanageable debt;
A new Five Year Plan that fragments the NHS into 44 areas, each having to make cost-cutting Sustainability and Transformation Plans and develop into what are currently called integrated care systems and accountable care organisations that allow more scope for private companies to profit from planning and providing services;
Rising pressure on the NHS, for example from increased levels of poverty and homelessness following the government’s ‘austerity’ measures;
Underfunding of the NHS and financial cuts, with demands for crippling ‘efficiency savings’;
Pressure on NHS Trusts in the face of underfunding and financial deficits to sell irreplaceable public assets – i.e NHS-owned land and buildings, and transfer NHS services and staff to Trust-owned private companies.

These changes are not just re-organising the NHS. They are creating a system of healthcare where privatisation is encouraged and where, in future, services are unlikely to be fully funded from general taxes or equally available to all.

Please look at the following leaflet provided by the 'patients 4 nhs group' and also take a look at their website below.

Leaflet Download (PDF, 286KB)

www.patients4nhs.org.uk/what-we-are-about

Locally we have our save lewisham hospital campaign.

Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign

People walking with signs that say Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign

The Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign is a community campaign that started out by saving Lewisham Hospital but now campaigns to defend NHS services in Lewisham.

Presently in 2018/19 Lewisham CCG (Clinical Commisioning Group) are tasked to recover 20 MILLION POUNDS in efficiency savings from primary care.

Please join us and attend our monthly meetings details of which can be found here: www.savelewishamhospital.com/our-meetings

email savelewishamhospital@yahoo.com for more information or to be added to our mailing list.

See youtu.be/ZnuSfbJAuiw for Lewisham CCGs publication from March 2018 which details the 'Chairs Summary' and Lewishams current financial situation.

Please look at the video below which illustrates how currently the many organisations of the NHS work together and how the NHS functions as a whole at present.

Have Your Say!

Would you like to have a say about the services provided at Queens Road? The Patient Group would like to hear your views. Contact the surgery for more details or email the PPG group – queensroadppg@outlook.com

Full Fact Information

For unbiased factual information on current spending on the NHS and the pressures we face please read the following articles by Full Fact, an independent UK charity.

fullfact.org/health/spending-english-nhs

fullfact.org/health/will-local-nhs-services-england-have-570-billion-spend-over-next-five-years

fullfact.org/health/unclear-nhs-england-save-500000-lives