Get involved on July 17th to stop the NHS Corporate Takeover Bill

The government is planning NHS legislation in England that will allow for more American-style privatisation. This week, Conservative MPs voted the Corporate Takeover Bill through its second reading in Parliament. Now is the time to fight back!

To show that this proposal is a tug of war between you and private companies, with your healthcare at stake, will you attend or organise  'tug of war' stunt locally? Find the list of actions confirmed below.

Can't make an in-person action? You can take part online! Just take a selfie or group photo with this graphic (or your own sign with the message!) and tag us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. If you don't use social media, you can email it to info@weownit.org.uk.

Let's call on the new Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, to scrap these plans and reinstate a fully publicly-run NHS. 

How to organise a tug of war stunt for July 17th's Day of Action

1. No event happening locally? You still have time to ask 5 people you know to get involved! See our step by step guide here for all the info you'll need. If you can't organise a tug of war, could you get your household or a group to pose for a photo with the graphic?

It's now too late for us to get materials to you in the post, but you can still organise the photo opportunity with a simple stretch of rope, print-out photographs to make masks, and a copy of this poster

2. Take plenty of pictures to share! Please send them to info@weownit.org.uk, and tag us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
 

Confirmed local action events:

Join an event near you on 17/07/2021

Barnstaple - 10am, outside The Guildhall, High Street

Buxton - 10am-2pm, Buxton Market, Market Place, SK17 6EQ

Camelford - 10am, Enfield Park, PL32

Chipping Norton - 9.30am-12.30pmthe car park in front of WHSmith, OX7 5AD

Chorley - 10-11am, Chorley Hospital, PR7 1PP

​Halifax - 2.30pm, outside Wilko, 2 Southgate, Halifax, HX1 1DR

Harrow - 11am, Harrow Shopping Centre, Station Road, HA1 2AD

Horsham - 11am, Carfax, RH12 1FD

Leamington Spa - 11am-1pm, Leamington Town Hall, CV32 4AT

Lewes - 1.30pm, Lewes Victoria Hospital, BN7 1PE; 3pm, Cliffe Precinct, BN7 2AH

London - 10.30am-12pm, Passy Place, Eltham, SE9 1UD

Newcastle - 10.45am, Greys Monument, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE1 5AF

Oxford - 11am-12.30pm, Manzil Way (outside the Private Public Partnership NHS building)

Skelmersdale - 12pm, Nye Bevan Pool, WN8 6LT

Teignmouth - 2pm, Teignmouth Hospital, Teignmouth, TQ14 9BQ

Totnes - 10am, Vire Island (bottom of the bridge steps), TQ9 5QL

Washington - 3pm, Victoria Road Health Centre, Tyne and Wear, NE37 2PU

18/07/2021

London - 2.30pm, Greenwich Park (on the grassed area  between St Mary's Gate and the Boating Pond), SE10 8QY

 

 

 

Do you believe in public services for people not profit?

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Comments

Cathie Thomson replied on Permalink

Totally opposed to any privatisation

Amrik Dosanjh replied on Permalink

We should all get together to protect our NHS. It is not for profit.

Stephen France replied on Permalink

Quite right, I agree.

Veronica Ambrose replied on Permalink

I want the original NHS

Paul Ambrose replied on Permalink

Free the nhs

Maggie Jennings replied on Permalink

The NHS is for the people NOT for profit

liz dimond replied on Permalink

we need ads on all radio stations and in newspapers.most people probably have no idea this is happening.

Stephen France replied on Permalink

I absolutely agree. Keep your hands off our NHS and invest more in it as you p in your promised in your Brexit pack of lies!

Michael Rathe replied on Permalink

Let’s do it!!!

Carole Henson replied on Permalink

The NHS is a public concern

Douglas Mitchell replied on Permalink

Virgin already is in charge of our surgery. I want them out.

Gayle Sheriff replied on Permalink

Good for you. This back door privatisation by Tories and Blair’s government has gone on for too long

Alice replied on Permalink

We can kick them out together Douglas! Can you organise action for July 17th? We need as many actions as possible happening across the country! Don't worry if you've never organised an action like this before: we have two trainings next week in case you'd like to learn more: https://weownit.org.uk/act-now/events

-Alice and the We Own It team

Paul Crummy replied on Permalink

Got to stick together on this ALL walks of life

Maria Jane Ali replied on Permalink

Well said the NHS is for everyone regardless of background, race, and status

Alan Collins replied on Permalink

Public health should not be for profit and no person should gain from someone else’s misfortune

David Wilton replied on Permalink

The National Health Service, Was created for everyone, and certainly for the less fortunate people of the country, I Honestly Believe it should be a criminal offence When the more fortunate people want to make a profit out of a humane organisation, it turns my stomach sick when I hear of these grab all people, and more shocking is when we find out these people are our personal friends, that would stab the less fortunate people in the back, friends like that you don’t need enemies.

Alice replied on Permalink

Thanks so much for your comment. We agree that we need to stop this privatisation NOW: Can you organise action for July 17th? We need as many actions as possible happening across the country! Don't worry if you've never organised an action like this before: we have two trainings next week in case you'd like to learn more: https://weownit.org.uk/act-now/events

-Alice and the We Own It team

Sue Flint replied on Permalink

If there is anything going on in/near BS5 6UD I'd like to help if possible despite my rather advanced age.

Simon Furness replied on Permalink

This is an attempt at privatisation by stealth by this government.

Pete Kendall replied on Permalink

Just say no and let's make sure they don't by an means necessary

Alice replied on Permalink

Thanks so much for your comment. We agree that we need to stop this privatisation NOW: Can you organise action for July 17th? We need as many actions as possible happening across the country! Don't worry if you've never organised an action like this before: we have two trainings next week in case you'd like to learn more: https://weownit.org.uk/act-now/events

-Alice and the We Own It team

Marion Morris replied on Permalink

This is our NHS not the Governments money cow.

We keep being told by them that the NHS is safe in their hands but that isn't true. They are selling and have sold parts of our NHS already and needs to be stopped NOW.

Alice replied on Permalink

Thanks so much for your comment. We agree that we need to stop this privatisation NOW: Can you organise action for July 17th? We need as many actions as possible happening across the country! Don't worry if you've never organised an action like this before: we have two trainings next week in case you'd like to learn more: https://weownit.org.uk/act-now/events

-Alice and the We Own It team

John replied on Permalink

'Many surgeries in London hijacked!

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/health/37-nhs-gp-practices-have-been-sold-to-a-private-us-health-company-heres-what-it-means-3172193

And many others elsewhere - we need to stop the rot!

https://weownit.org.uk/blog/here-are-gp-practices-taken-over-us-health-insurance-giant-centene

Alice replied on Permalink

Thanks so much for your comment. We agree that we need to stop this privatisation NOW: Can you organise action for July 17th? We need as many actions as possible happening across the country! Don't worry if you've never organised an action like this before: we have two trainings next week in case you'd like to learn more: https://weownit.org.uk/act-now/events

-Alice and the We Own It team

Nikkie Griffiths replied on Permalink

Profit and shareholders should be nowhere near public health services

As soon as money is involved the poor and sick always lose out #protecttheNHS

Alice replied on Permalink

Thanks so much for your comment. We agree that we need to stop this privatisation NOW: Can you organise action for July 17th? We need as many actions as possible happening across the country! Don't worry if you've never organised an action like this before: we have two trainings next week in case you'd like to learn more: https://weownit.org.uk/act-now/events

-Alice and the We Own It team

Dede Wilson replied on Permalink

This has been going on since the Health and social Care Act was passed in 2012. Branson actually sued the NHS for £8m for not awarding him the contract for Bath's GP surgeries. Profit first, patients last. Gained through causing delays and preventing full proper care because GP practices with owners like Branson make their 'profit through 'prevention of appropriate treatment. They use referrals to private company ' specialists first. They do not let their doctors to refer to hospital consultants until they have exhausted the commissioned private 'specialist advisor' referrals first. eg Musculo-skeletal specialists...(ie physios), non medically trained staff online and pharmaceutical advisors. These delaying tactics prevent full proper diagnosis, dealing only with 'bits'at a time. The problems get worse until they are really serious.

Referrals to NHS consultants would ensure there is a proper diagnosis with appropriate treatment set up with teams of medical staff in the hospital. No profit in that.

Centene is a perfect example of this in practice. Many of you may have been referred to their Health Centres without knowing it. That is why it has been sued across the US. CCG privatisation has been accelerating since they were given free rein to buy in NHS Services hidden behind NHS logos. Stealth from the start.

I am a campaigner and a witness in the Mansfield Inquiry. The New Health Bill replaces the NHS as we know it with Integrated Care Systems. It has been through Parliament already but not the Lords. A lot of opposition there. Integrated Care Systems sounds good if you think it is genuinely 'Integrated Care' of medical and social services... primary, hospital etc. It's not. Patients and their data are 'products' to be sold to the highest bidders. CEO Simon Stevens is ready to step down now as everything for this is in place now, ready to be implemented. 'Integrated Care' really means replacing our fully public NHS with an American insurance led health care model(Private). This then to be integrated with what's left of the NHS itself, to become what is commonly known in the US as "Medicare', Obama Care, Accountable Care....etc. Patients' viablility for treatment will be is assessed in terms of 'cost' and whether or not it is worth providing the care they need.

Alice replied on Permalink

Thanks so much for your comment. We agree that we need to stop this privatisation NOW: Can you organise action for July 17th? We need as many actions as possible happening across the country! Don't worry if you've never organised an action like this before: we have two trainings next week in case you'd like to learn more: https://weownit.org.uk/act-now/events

-Alice and the We Own It team

Judith replied on Permalink

Excellent summary of what will happen under Integrated Care. The bill states that there will be no entitlement to be referred for treatment in a hospital or clinic, and is even deliberately obscure regarding how patients will be allocated to each ICB. It’s a licence to make things up as they go along, and It has to be stopped. It will now go through committee stage in Commons, then get passed to the Lords in a few weeks. We need to keep up the pressure!

Anonymous replied on Permalink

The selling off of our NHS has been taking place for years under this and other Tory governments. I am appalled and loosing faith in my fellow British Citizens who are sitting idly by engrossed in "love Island. Big Brother, the Masked Singer , Goggle Box etc" all distractions for the brain dead. The Tories are running down the NHS as they did with the Railways, Electricity Board and Water Board until is necessary to bale them out with private sector (or in reality Tory Donors) money. How stupid does the general public have to be to allow this to continue ..I have almost given up hope

Chris Stevens replied on Permalink

Yes, very true in all areas mentioned. The railway privatisation was disastrous and this is the method the Tory government have always adopted. Under-fund, demoralize, destroy the working infrastructure, cause delays and strikes, then blame the strikers who try to oppose the government's wishes. The sell of the "efficient" private sector are then given as the only viable alternative. As with austerity, this is a political aim and one, which if the press and general public had been aware and did something to stop, the HSCA 2012 and the general erosion of the NHS since Ken Clarke was Health Minister in 1988 with the creation of the purchaser-provider split in his paper sickeningly named "Working for Patients". It was this that started the destruction of a publicly owned and accountable system. Jeremy Hunt I understand was the first Health Secretary not to be directly responsible for providing health care to the UK. No-one batted an eyelid. The UK has an apathetic electorate but this is hardly surprising given the political move of centralist parties having very similar agendas and therefore no choice in policy direction. Add this to the difficulties now in registering political parties through the electoral commission and it is no wonder the UK watch such rubbish. The UK is now the 51st state of the US and this will get worse once we start adopting lower food standards as they have in the US. The US has the appalling reputation of having the worst healthcare model in the World according to the WHO. Why then does our spineless lot in Westminster seek to emulate it and decimate what was one of the best? Simply profit for the few over the suffering of the many and this will only get worse as the population ages and becomes sicker with age related diseases. "When the rich wage war, it is the poor who die". These demonstrations need more coverage and more public notice which will not occur in the likes of the Telegraph, Independent (jokingly named) or Times or on TV with the impartial BBC, ITV or ITN. What a country in which we live.

Christina Aitken replied on Permalink

As an EX MEDICAL PA FOR THE NHS, I know for a fact this has been going for years and has been since they took on the bullying NHS Managers who clearly do not care about the public, but what the idots don't realise is all the good and hardworking and caring staff they have bullied and kicked out are now gone, some committed suicide. They tried to call me back 7 times last year to help with C19, I couldn't but wanted to help my colleagues, but I was bullied twice and my brain said NO, my heart said YES, but in the end they will sell it bit by bit, Virgin has been in Leatherhead for years, my MP Chris Philps assures me he is against and wrote to me which I gave to this group, but I know without the NHS we will all suffer for sure and those who can't afford will then go, mmmmm, maybe should have helped those who are trying to stop it, but it will BE TOO LATE.

Dorothy replied on Permalink

Keept the NHS for everyone

Anonymous replied on Permalink

As a supporter of the sdp party I endorse your campaign this rotten Tory government and it's tame Labour party need removing from office & parliament

Judith replied on Permalink

Absolutely disgraceful I said to my friends this was going to happen hands off its the people's NHS not the government's

Julie Bullen replied on Permalink

Its clear what happens when a country bases its Health Care on Private provision....look at America. The public hospitals for those

who can't afford private health care are truly awful, understaffed and dirty. And those who can only afford cheaper Private Medical Insurance often

find out that when they are sick their insurance company won't pay out - or acts dishonestly (there are a number of films about this, see True Movies). It can bankrupt families.

Dylyn Dalton replied on Permalink

We've just got to fight for what's ours!

Keith R Lay replied on Permalink

To paraphrase Marx. The direct aims of production are SOCIAL NECESSITY. However, the fruit and gains of said are directed for PRIVATE GAIN by the nature of their private expropriation

Eleanor Lewington replied on Permalink

The NHS is for all of us, ant not for profit for the private sector.

Susan Balbuena replied on Permalink

We must 'keep on keeping on' and get help from the media - those who care enough to keep this in the fore in the news. The public must not be duped into accepting private health in place of the NHS specialist services - private healthcare is generally not a patch on the specialisms in all fields within the NHS and not delivered with the care and commitment that the NHS provides either. We have to do all that is possible to stop this creeping corporate cancer colonising our most vital public service. I don't know if it would be possible to start a campaign, legally, where we can ring-fence our taxes to go to the real NHS and prevent them going to private providers, as was attempted during the 70's and 80's in with-holding taxes to prevent them going to funding nuclear weapons. The NHS is ours not the Government's or the corporate private pharmaceutical business's - lets get this message out.

John Montague replied on Permalink

When will they learn the lessens from the past that privatising companies do not have the peoples best interests at heart. Only the share owners.

Debra croxford replied on Permalink

The NHS belongs to the people not this Tory government. They should not be allowed to privatise for profit.

Veronica stonehouse replied on Permalink

What is wrong with this world, ( greed) money is power and the criminals have, and it starts from the top so I don’t think anything can be done about it

peres replied on Permalink

the nhs been going for over 70 years folks paid in their does all their lives and still do hancock and the rest of them can sod off with this one .no one can pay for pritvat medical insurans. folks lost their jobs folks in the usa can not all paid for therir treantment a lot of them die it will happen here too becauce of hancock he need to go big style

Barbara Hankins replied on Permalink

To my horror last week I discovered that it is already partly privatised. I was discharged from hospital outpatients to a 'Community Ophthalmology Service called Operose Health. It is owned by 3 US Directors and one new UK woman who joined 31st March 21. It also buys up GP practices where a partner wishes to retire but the partners cannot afford to buy them out - they jump in... This is so wrong. The NHS belongs to the people. We have seen a prime example with Dental care. It now costs circa £12,000 for dental implants - Obscene...

Barbara Hankins replied on Permalink

To my horror last week I discovered that it is already partly privatised. I was discharged from hospital outpatients to a 'Community Ophthalmology Service called Operose Health. It is owned by 3 US Directors and one new UK woman who joined 31st March 21. It also buys up GP practices where a partner wishes to retire but the partners cannot afford to buy them out - they jump in... This is so wrong. The NHS belongs to the people. We have seen a prime example with Dental care. It now costs circa £12,000 for dental implants - Obscene...

Stephanie Miller replied on Permalink

Clem Attlee’s Labour government (1945-51) gave us the NHS. It was the greatest gift any government could give to the people. It has stuck in the craw of the Tories ever since. They do not want a ‘free’ Health Care Service with its fundamental ethos that all men are equal once they cross the threshold of an NHS hospital. That is anathema to the hyenas of the market place , everything has a price and all profits go to them and their draconian bed fellows. They forget, the upkeep of our beloved NHS is paid for by the people, by their taxes and National Insurance contributions . The people would willingly pay more to keep the NHS public and free from the claws of the Richard Branson’s of this world. It is time we all woke up to their insidious and loathsome intent. There are no pockets in shrouds. Remember the immortal words of William Shakespeare: We fatten calves for us, and we fatten us for worms. The hyenas of the market place, remember, remember, no one will shed a tear when your day of compt comes as it surely will.

shirley hay replied on Permalink

The whole of the UK must be made aware of this wrotten Government ongoing privatisation of the NHS. When I warn people they do not believe me. It has been going on since Hunt was health minister. He has has shares in private health organisations for years, as do most of the present Government MPs

John Fox replied on Permalink

I'm an historian, in my 70s, and involved in community politics. In 1918 political sincerity and idealism was at its highest with Homes Fit for Heroes proposed as marks of gratitude. (Not all politicians are out to make; many wish to serve and refuse to make. Lloyd George and the housing experts did believe in real social gratitude and responsibility. To understand the reality which men faced in 1919, study the Sanitary Inspector's Reports which always followed the Housing inspector's Reports at Rural/Urban District Councils. Much of the country those 'Heroes defended' was a diseased slum. The MoH in charge of all the first Housing Estates was actually the 'Ministry of Health'. By 1946 the country was in the same needy situation, this time with a private health service stretched to the limit. The same genune idealism and generosity to serve created the NHS. Atlee, Bevan joined Lloyrd George. Now we face those out to make (for themselves), not to re-create a tired fund-starved Health Service, so split during the Covid pandemic into LEA Care Homes starved of funds and protection, and hospitals overflowing when put to the test. Meanwhile, under Mrs Thatcher, council houses were privatised. I know superb 1927 council homes, 'garden estates' which now sell for £500,000, after a well known prime minister 'privatised them' Try raising local money now for 'social housing' (the phrase council housing has been damned out of existence. It was once like the NHS, our pride and joy. Now, local planners and conservationists deride and even attempt to degrade them with random 'infill' fly-approved proposals. Imagine this happening to local NHS surgery groups ?

Bob Lake replied on Permalink

For those of us that keep our eyes open and care, it is clear that this current Government lacks any transparency and honesty. We have a Planning Bill on the books that will take away our right to comment on any planning applications affecting our own communities, trade deals with Australia and potentially with the USA that will affect the livelihoods of our farmers and our rural communities, that will affect our health and as we know our NHS system, admired throughout the world, being furtively dismantled - run down to the point at which our Tory friends will claim that it is non longer 'fit for purpose' or sustainable and must be replaced by a more efficient system.

David Bacon replied on Permalink

We've had enough of greed, incompetence and corruption from this government. Saving the NHS must be at the top of everybody's list.

Penny FitzLyon replied on Permalink

The NHS is NOT government property.

It is owned by the British public.

It is not yours to sell

Amrik Dosanjh replied on Permalink

Don't allow NHS to go private.

Manuela Romeo replied on Permalink

NHS is for all. Everyone has the right to have access health care. The American model does not deliver benefits for the patients and the public.

Brian David Gill replied on Permalink

Looks like good news??

Brian David Gill replied on Permalink

Avoid , protest against profit orientated privatisation !!

Angela Pooley replied on Permalink

Everyone of us benefits from the NHS even those rich idiots that prefer private care, I have seen patients being treated in a private hospital being transferred to the NHS because the private hospital can't deal with the condition. The NHS must not be privatised in any way.

David Wilton. replied on Permalink

I was 8 years old when the National Health Service was introduced, I remember when the Doctor was called I remember clearly as though it were yesterday my Mother getting her purse and paying the

Doctor she could not really afford it, my Father was on the railway working, it was very poor pay , my Mother couldn’t go to work because she had five children to look after, Everyone welcomed the

NHS. That was the year 1948. The Labour Government introduced it. The People that want to privatise The NHS are ver selfish People they do not care about the poorer families, the only thing they really think about are themselves and the shares they have purchased and how much money they are making, Lives don’t seem to matter to them, what does it say in God’s word ( The Holy Bible) we

Are supposed to Love One Another.

Sue Flint replied on Permalink

I was a teenager at the start of the NHS. No longer were my poor parents obliged to pay whenever I or they needed a doctor. Such a new sense of security! Health services must always remain free and available at the point of need!

Fair earnings for those who provide its services!

Karl Simmons replied on Permalink

The NHS is for the people, not for profit or privatisation. It’s a way we can all share the wealth and well being of everybody

Michael Leahy replied on Permalink

The NHS is not for sale , it belongs to the people of this country. You only have to look to the USA .

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