"The NHS New Deal is a set of demands crowdsourced from the views and experiences of NHS patients across the UK. This is our vision for a fully funded, truly public NHS which respects health workers, gives patients the power to shape its future, and ensures everyone the quality care we all deserve."
A campaign launched online on Tuesday is calling on people throughout the country to join together in demanding an 'NHS New Deal'.
The group which organised this week's event, Just Treatment, is proposing bringing NHS funding up to the same proportion of gross domestic product as is spent in France and Germany, involving patients and front-line staff in decision making, ending privatisation of NHS services, and taking steps to protect patients from exploitation by pharmaceutical companies.
A pamphlet published for the launch sets out in detail the changes required to the NHS and to the public health system and those needed to tackle the societal root causes of ill-health:
"The pandemic has also put public health in the spotlight - showing how the causes of poor health are never purely individual but always social. We cannot isolate our own health from our neighbours’ health, or from our economy: they are intertwined. And the reasons why some groups and some places have been hit disproportionately hard by the virus are fundamentally not medical but social and economic: being stuck in poor housing, exposed to risky frontline work, or unable to afford to self-isolate. The NHS must shift its focus towards preventing people from getting sick in the first place, as well as helping them when they do.
"But it cannot do this alone. Most of the things which influence our health are outside the doors of the NHS - and if we simply expect the NHS to keep picking up the pieces of problems created elsewhere it will be constantly overwhelmed and under-resourced. Tragically, public health funding has been slashed over the last decade - decimating the capacity of support services and interventions which keep us healthy."
A leading backer of the campaign is north London author and broadcaster Michael Rosen, who last year survived a prolonged and severe bout of Covid thanks to the heroic efforts of the staff of the Whittington Hospital. He has written the foreword to the NHS New Deal pamphlet.
As a first step, the campaigners are asking everyone to sign a petition addressed to their MP and to display a window poster included in the pamphlet.
The NHS New Deal core demands:
Give everyone an equal chance to enjoy the freedom of a healthy life. All of us - no matter where we live or who we are - should have an equal chance to live a full and healthy life. We must overcome the disadvantages and inequalities that mean some people’s circumstances lead to worse health and poorer care.- An NHS that listens - run by the people, for the people. This is our NHS. We must give patients and frontline health workers the ability to shape services so that they meet the needs of communities across the UK and give patients the respect and dignity they deserve.
- Tackle the root causes of poor health. Across the UK bad housing, poorly paid work, pollution, and poverty are making us sick. We must do something about these underlying causes - it’s not good enough to simply treat people once they’re already unwell.
- Fully fund our health and care, respect and value NHS staff. If nothing matters more than our health, then why aren’t we funding healthcare properly? We must dramatically increase spending to the levels seen in France and Germany and ensure that NHS staff get the pay and support that means they can do their job.
- Our care is not a commodity: stop big corporations ripping off our NHS. Right now, the profits of healthcare and pharmaceutical corporations are being put before our right to health. We must bring an end to private companies running NHS services, and take action to protect patients from big pharma and big data firms.
Links
Download the NHS New Deal pamphlet and window poster
Michael Rosen backs campaign for big funding rise for NHS (Guardian 25 January 2021)
