Monthly Archives: November 2014

The threats to the local NHS have never been clearer. It’s time for us, as ordinary users of the NHS, to take back control from the bureaucrats who are cutting and privatising vital services.

We’re now working with a legal firm called Leigh Day – the top lawyers in the country when it comes to defending the NHS. They’re helping us protect the A&E at the Royal Shrewsbury
Hospital against cuts and privatisation that are threatened as soon as 1st December (i.e. less than a week away).  In a situation as desperate as this, and when local NHS bosses are acting without public consultation, we felt we had no choice about seeking legal support.

Leigh Day have offered to let us pay whenever we can raise the money – but they can’t work for nothing. We’re a community organisation. We don’t have rich backers. We’re appealing for your help in raising the money we need to keep campaigning. Can you spare £5 or £10? Would it be possible to do a collection in your workplace or community group? Do you belong to a trade union or another organisation that might be able to make a donation? Please help us out if you can.

Cheques should be made payable to ‘Shropshire Defend Our NHS’ c/o 102 Corve St, Shropshire SY8 1EB.

Would you consider writing to your MP and to the newspapers as well? Please see the end of this updatefor more ideas!

So what’s actually happening?
Continue reading →

We had a small but important victory in October. We had expected that the Council’s ‘Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee’ would vote to endorse local NHS plans to scrap national ambulance response targets. (We knew that they had been asked to do this because the Chair of the Committee, Councillor Dakin, told this to a Health and Wellbeing Board on 10th October). In the event, no vote was taken – and councillors were told by the Chair that the report on ambulance targets was there ‘just for information’. Why the change? We had lobbied councillors hard, and the committee would have split down the middle. Probably the vote to attack the ambulance service would have scraped through – but the fight would have been deeply embarrassing to the NHS chiefs who are trying to cover their tracks.

Continue reading →