What has The Channel or The Atlantic got to do with the NHS?

Besides, The Channel and The Atlantic, this post reveals what Barons and Baronesses have got to do with the NHS...

Here is my letter to Baroness Morgan regarding the House of Lords vote (11th October 2011) on huge, dangerous changes to the NHS - this is part of the 38 Degrees campaign to save the NHS. See the end of this post for more information.

Dear Baroness Morgan 

I trust that you will reflect carefully on the proposed changes to the NHS which could mean people's lives coming second to private company profits and their shareholders. 

I believe that Britain is a society emerging out of the best traditions of European values of diversity, tolerance and consideration of others. We should be looking across the Channel and North Sea for our inspiration for solving problems of the 21st century rather than looking across the Atlantic.  Having experienced life on the continent, I am convinced that our health, both physical and mental, responds best to co-operation and consideration rather than competition and coercion. 

Please ensure that any changes to the NHS allow Britain to continue valuing the quality of life of all its citizens over the quantity of shares of a few.

So please read the email below which prompted this aristocratic interaction and then check out 38Degrees' new “contact a lord” tool, to write your own message now: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/contact-a-lord

And, if you are able to contribute to 38Degrees campaign, please do so at this link
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/contribute/nhs-lords-donate

Email from 38Degrees

Most of us don’t contact Lords or Baronesses all that often. But this time, we need them to listen. Next week the House of Lords starts voting on huge, dangerous changes to the NHS. [1]

It’s up to us to persuade the Lords to properly look at the NHS plans - and to vote to protect our health service. And thanks to the rapid donations of 38 Degrees members, we have a brand new tool which makes it easy to get in touch with them.

Just today, 400 Public Health experts wrote to the Lords warning that the plans "will do irreparable harm to the NHS, to individual patients and to society as a whole." [2] The more people Lords hear from the better - let's send our own personal messages now.

Check out our new “contact a lord” tool, and write your message now:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/contact-a-lord

Contacting a Lord or Baroness is a bit like contacting your MP. We don’t elect Lords, but it’s still their job to look carefully at new laws and rein in the more extreme whims of the government of the day. They have the power to propose big changes to the NHS plans, or even to throw them out altogether. [3]

Sincere, polite messages from informed members of the public are crucial to persuading the House of Lords to block the threats to our health service.

Working together, we can remind the Lords that we never voted to open up vast swathes of the NHS to private companies. It wasn't in any election manifesto to scrap the government’s duty to provide health services. [4] We didn't vote for our health service to become more like America's - let's persuade the Lords they shouldn’t vote for this either!

It will only take five minutes or so to contact a Lord. Click here to get started:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/contact-a-lord

By all working together, we've already held up the government's dangerous plans for our NHS and forced them to make some positive changes. But there's still so much more to do. Imagine the impact we can have if we send thousands of messages to the House of Lords from 38 Degrees members up and down the country.

Please take five minutes to send your message to a Lord or Baroness now:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/contact-a-lord


Thanks for being involved,

Johnny, Cian, Becky, Marie, David, Hannah and the 38 Degrees team


P.S. These kind of web tools usually take months to build. This one has been built in a hurry because the Lords start voting next week. So please be one of the first to try it and let us know if you have any feedback once you have:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/contact-a-lord

NOTES

[1]The 'Second Reading' in the House of Lords is expected to be next Tuesday 11th October.

[2] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-cameron-defends-coalition-nhs-reforms-2365331.html The letter warns that Lansley's plan "ushers in a significantly heightened degree of commercialisation and marketisation that will fragment patient care; aggravate risks to individual patient safety; erode medical ethics and trust within the health system; widen health inequalities; waste much money on attempts to regulate and manage competition; and undermine the ability of the health system to respond effectively and efficiently to communicable disease outbreaks and other public health emergencies."

[3] E.g. In 2008 the Lords forced the government to abandon plans to allow police to hold some suspects without charge for 42 days after massive public outcry and opposition to the plans: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7666022.stm

[4] For more on this see 38 Degrees' legal advice on the implications of the changes:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/content/NHS-legal-advice/