Londoners campaigning for the National Health Action Party at the European elections

This evening members of our local group were joined at Whipps Cross hospital by Dr Louise Irvine, the National Health Action Party’s lead candidate in May’s European elections and Dr Jacky Davis, contributor to the book NHS SOS – How the NHS was Betrayed and How We Can Save It.
The local NHA group was also joined by members of Waltham Forest Save Our NHS which is holding an open meeting at the Healthwatch Pop-up Shop at Hoe Street Central, 137 Hoe Street, Walthamstow on Monday 31st March from 18.30 until 19.45. WFSON invites all members of the public to join the meeting and hear what other locals are doing to defend our NHS.

Dr Irvine returns to our borough tomorrow. Dr Irvine will be joining fellow MEP candidate Andrew Sharp, a Highams Park resident who has lived in the borough since 2003. The pair will be campaigning on Station Road, Chingford from 11 to 12 and at the top of Walthamstow Market from 12.30. They are hoping to become MEPs for 3 key reasons:
Reason 1. TTIP – the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Treaty currently being negotiated by the European Parliament. NHAP calls for the NHS to be exempted from this treaty because it allows private companies to sue the British government for loss of potential earnings if NHS services are not opened up to competition, irrespective of the views of the electorate, 84% of whom wants the NHS to remain publicly- run. None of the major parties are bothered enough about the fate of the NHS to be leading the fight to get our health service exempted from TTIP.
Reason 2. Public Health
There are vital public health issues that Europe legislates around: the environment and pollution, the regulation of medicines and doctors, food labelling and food safety. NHAP wants to prioritise public health in all policy decisions.
Reason 3. Use your vote to stand up for the NHS. Or lose it.
A vote for the NHA at the Euro elections to send a strong, clear message to politicians from across the political spectrum that the demolition and privatisation of our NHS must stop.

Please come and find us to learn more about how you can help to save our NHS.

MEP Candidate Visits Waltham Forest on 29th March

London MEP candidate Dr Louise Irvine, who’s standing for the National Health Action Party in May’s Euro elections, will be campaigning in Waltham Forest on Saturday [29th March].

As part of the fight to save the NHS, Dr Irvine is standing for the European Parliament

Dr Irvine, Lewisham GP and Chair of the Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign, which prevented the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt from closing down Lewisham A&E, is warning of the serious threat to Whipps Cross Hospital.

The National Health Action Party was launched by doctors and health care workers just over a year ago in opposition to the government’s disastrous NHS reforms and increasing privatisation of the health service. The Party is fielding candidates in May’s local and Euro elections in London, including the theatre and TV star Rufus Hound.

Dr Irvine will be campaigning in Chingford and Walthamstow this Saturday, alongside members of the newly formed Waltham Forest NHA group.

She called on local people to join the fight to save the NHS:

“I am very concerned about the threat to Whipps Cross where acute services such as stroke and cancer care are at risk. Whipps Cross is a great local hospital that is much needed by its local populations and we need to make sure its future is secure.

“Sadly there are massive staff morale and retention problems. Many nursing staff have had their roles reclassified at a lower level and have ended up doing the same work for less pay, which makes the recent announcement by Jeremy Hunt of low or no pay rises for nurses all the more outrageous.

“Where staff are unhappy they are less able to offer patients high levels of quality care.

“Whipps Cross is now part of Barts Health Trust. Many local residents fear that Whipps Cross might be wound down or be privatised and have its assets stripped to help plug the colossal £115million per year cost of the PFI debt Barts incurred on its new hospital in Whitechapel.

Local people need to take a stand. A vote for the NHA Party in May will send a loud and clear message that this government’s attack on our NHS must stop.”

The newly established local NHA Waltham Forest group will campaign around local NHS services for the people of Waltham Forest and the surrounding areas. This involves working with other local NHS campaign groups to ensure that local services are run for the benefit of the health of local people, including the services at Whipps Cross hospital.

Co-founder of the NHA Waltham Forest local group Andrew Sharp said:

“Aren’t you fed up with the NHS being treated as a political football? I am, which is why I founded the Waltham Forest group of the National Health Action Party. The NHS needs to change. What I like so much about NHA is that they are not opposed to change within the NHS. They are simply opposed to change that is harmful to the NHS and its patients, which is what is happening in England right now.

“Like most people I want the NHS to remain publicly operated so that it can be properly accountable when things go wrong for patients, properly funded so that staff are not so rushed off their feet that they don’t have adequate time for my family while under their care. I also want the NHS to be coordinated so that when we are ill we do not get passed from one private provider to another – rarely does anybody rely on just one NHS department to resolve their health issues.

“I no longer feel able to stand by and allow our politicians to purposefully cause our NHS to disintegrate. The NHA is a small but determined grass roots movement. NHA Waltham Forest invites people of all political persuasions and from all walks of life to join our efforts to protect and improve our local NHS services.”

Notes:

Contact details for National Health Action Party:

Nationally: press@nhap.org; @NHAparty

Waltham Forest: NHAPartyWF@gmail.com; @NHA_WF; facebook.com/NHAPartyWalthamForest

The National Health Action Party was set up in late 2012 by a group of healthcare professionals eager to defend the values of the NHS in opposition to the damaging changes taking place as a result of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. This Act removed the legal obligation for the government to provide comprehensive healthcare in England, and opened up the NHS to privatisation and fragmentation of services. The NHA Party campaigns for an integrated, cost-effective system that puts patients before profits.

More details on NHA Party policies and political activity can be found here: www.nhap.org

The National Health Action Waltham Forest group is a local group of NHA members and campaigns on local as well as national issues.