Category Archives: Healthcare

The Powers and The Oppressed

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There is so much that could be written under such a title – several books worth, but I will keep this brief!

Standing up for the oppressed and more importantly helping them realise that they are empowered and therefore powerful is likely to get you sidelined, silenced, imprisoned, exiled or killed. Paolo Freire did exactly this in Brasil through an amazing education program and was indeed exiled. Jesus did it in 1st Century Palestine and he ended up crucified.

The powers are completely fearful of a multitude who begin to see that the status quo does not have to be maintained, who hear that their voice is important and just as valid as that of the powers and then begin to use their voices to call for something entirely different.

I am discovering that in the middle classes, we have enough power to believe that we are not really oppressed (which btw is not true, because we are slaves to a system in which we are either passive or complicit without meaning to be) and so we are actually pretty ok for things to stay much the way things are. An overwhelming passivity has gripped us and we have become numb to the news cycles that might previously have shaken us to something wholly more radical…..The powers do not really fear the middle classes, unless….unless a people movement begins that does not have the ego at the fore. For change to occur we need to be concerned with the need of others before ourselves…..and this takes a change of our hearts…..

But, the marginalised……if they really found and used their voice……if they refused to be silenced……if the middle classes refused to stay silent on their behalf…… If the oppressed threw off the shackles and realised they are princes and not slaves, as God calls them…..well, that would be exciting. Is it beyond our imaginations? Conversations springing up all over the place that could change the world?!

Some Good News from 38 Degrees

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An encouraging email from the 38 degrees campaign group today. Protest does work! People movements can change things.

Dear Andy

Some very, very good news. We did it! The government has accepted our amendment to the hospital closure clause in the House of Lords. [1]

Without our amendment the hospital closure clause would have given the government new powers to close any hospital in England, even if local doctors were against it.

The clause was voted through by MPs back in March, after the government made some concessions. Their changes didn’t go far enough, but it seemed like the government wouldn’t budge any further.

The clause was due to be passed today. So the government’s decision to accept – almost word for word – the changes proposed by lawyers funded by 38 Degrees members came right down to the wire – and it was a big surprise.

Our people powered pressure worked and our hospitals are now safer. Thank you for everything you’ve done to make this happen. Hurrah!

David Lock QC, an NHS expert lawyer, has checked the government’s changes and here’s what he said:
“This is a very satisfying outcome. It recognises the compelling logic of the position taken by 38 Degrees members.”

38 Degrees members, alongside others like the Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign, have been campaigning on this for months:

  • Over 150,000 of us signed a petition calling for the plans to be scrapped
  • After meeting with 38 Degrees members, Lib Dem MP and ex-health minister Paul Burstow tabled amendments to the clause. The government, fearing a rebellion from within its own ranks, made some concessions but they didn’t go far enough.
  • The campaign then moved to the House of Lords. Baroness Finlay, a well-respected doctor and influential crossbench peer, led the charge. 38 Degrees members funded briefings and advice from legal heavyweights and we wrote to peers. [2]

In the end, everything we did together – alongside other campaigners and parliamentarians like Baroness Finlay, Paul Burstow MP, Andy Burnham MP – worked. The government has made the changes that they needed to.

Regardless of what happened today, we’ve still got a huge amount to do to protect our NHS. But wins like this, especially on the NHS, don’t come along that often. Today gives us more proof that when we work together, we can achieve great things, and make the government sit up and listen. So for today, let’s celebrate.

Thanks for everything you do,

Becky, Blanche, Rachel, Ian, Rebecca, Maddy and the rest of the 38 Degrees team

PS: Here’s what Baroness Finlay said:
“I am delighted that the Government have recognised the need for equity and the importance of safeguarding good patient services in a population.

The campaign to achieve this would not have been as effective without the support of 38 Degrees members.”

The Powers

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This last week I was sat in a meeting with several maternity service users and a splattering of health professionals and managers of varying sorts. We were talking about the enormous deficit that is in our health budget and therefore some of the difficult options that are ahead of us. The government likes to call these options “efficiency savings”, everybody else knows that we are talking about cuts to services.

I always start my presentations by talking about the difficulty we find ourselves in, how we got here (a massive national debt, which all nations are in because our entire economic system is built on debt and none of it is real and they just keep on printing more money to solve it, made far worse by people who get massive bonuses and a >£2billion reorganisation of the NHS that no one wanted or asked for, which had we not had, we would now not be needing to make so many cuts!) and what our options now are.

I then offer a revolution, and other than a few smiles and the odd chortle, no one seems to think this a realistic or viable option….But, if we didn’t reinvest in Trident, or if we did charge greedy corporations appropriate levels of tax, then we wouldn’t need to cut services in the NHS.

Anyhow, I then talk about the fact that no decisions have been made and that we are genuinely in a process of listening (something the government really didn’t do before inflicting this reorganisation on us) and wanting to come to a place of collaborative agreement. But I am fast learning two things. The first is that nobody wants the thing they really care about to be cut or refashioned in any manner. They understand that safeguarding their piece of the pie means that others will miss out, but they don’t actually want to make any sacrifices – I understand that. I also understand more clearly that isolated health budgeting doesn’t work……more on this anon….

The second and starkest realisation I’ve had though is just how dreadful the new legislation voted in by parliament really is.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26531807

You see, the Secretary of State for Health now has new powers, never had before to close any services or hospital he/she deems fit, not if they are performing badly, but if it makes better financial sense to do so…..And this is where the rubber hits the road in our public consultations and discussions with patients and service users. If we don’t come up with a solution to cut our services (oh sorry, I mean make efficiency savings – memo to self – stop referring to “efficiency savings” as “cuts”), with the public in some sort of agreement (although they won’t be, because who wants their services cut?!), then what will happen is the government will simply do the following:

They will tell us our sums do not add up, they will tell us that savings/cuts must be made, they will get rid of those of us who are trying to reach a point of agreement with our service users and they will bring in their own board aka Monitor. Monitor do not have to consult with anybody, they will simply cut/burn/slash whatever is deemed necessary and their decision cannot be challenged or overturned!

This is nothing other than bullying. It is what Georgio Agamben talks about when he refers to ‘The State of the Exception’ and with this grim stick of threat held up behind us, it makes our work of trying to reach a collaborative agreement on the redesign of services completely impossible. What are we to do? The challenge is here: how do we subvert the system, making it absolutely clear that we do not play this game, and yet submit back into the system so as to allow love to win the day.

The Powers have shown their strong arm. But they have forgotten that there is a power far more ancient and far more beautiful…….life laid down love……love always wins and it will win in the end in the face of all oppression.