UNISON gives Government NHS birthday wish list 04/07/2011

UNISON chief Dave Prentis will urge the Government to pick presents from the union's wish list for the NHS' 63rd birthday tomorrow (5 July), or the health service may not be celebrating next year.

The UK's largest union is warning that, unless the Government takes heed of the wish list, plans set out in the Health and Social Care Bill will lead to the break-up of the NHS. Profits will be put before patients, as private companies are set to gnaw through a huge slice of the birthday cake.

Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, will join other union heads at the Department of Health, at 9.30am, to present giant birthday cards. UNISON regions are also staging a number of events, including giving birthday cards to MPs and organising photo stunts with birthday cakes.

Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said:

"For the last 63 years hardworking health service staff have saved millions of lives and built it up to be the national treasure it is today. The Government want to tear all this down and turn the NHS into little more than a logo.

"The best present the Government could give is to recognise the good work carried out by doctors, nurses, cleaners and other health staff. By picking the presents laid out in our birthday wish list it could stop the Health and Social Care Bill becoming a recipe for chaos and privatisation.

"Plans set out in the Bill will simply turn the NHS into a business, where more of our taxes will pay for profit-driven companies to provide our healthcare. All of this when satisfaction of the NHS is at an all time high.

"NHS staff, campaigning groups and the public will fight to keep a service that puts patients before profits. We must stop a similar crisis to Southern Cross and make sure that there is a 64th birthday to look forward to."

UNISON's NHS birthday wish list:

Keep services in the public domain - the move to a policy of 'Any Qualified Provider' will see private companies get their claws into services - it will then be impossible to bring them back. New commissioning consortia will outsource to unaccountable companies, while the NHS will be legally blocked from being the ‘preferred provider' of care.

Retain the cap on private patient income - the existing cap is designed to stop Trusts prioritising more profitable private patients over those in the NHS. As waiting lists continue to grow, NHS patients will be pushed to the back of the queue. The NHS is built on fairness and equity - this policy exemplifies the Government's disdain for its founding principles.

Halt the move to make Monitor an economic regulation - despite claiming to have 'listened' to the barrage of criticism, the government still envisages the regulator Monitor as an NHS version of Ofgem or Ofwat, with the power to enforce competition law and prevent "anti-competitive behaviour". This will move the focus away from scrutinising the quality of care, potentially putting patients in danger.

Keep staff in their jobs - the Government's own figures anticipate 20,000 redundancies across the NHS - patient services are bound to suffer. Redundancy payments alone will cost £1bn, which is a colossal waste of money when the NHS is under huge pressure to make 'efficiency savings' elsewhere.

Strengthen accountability and openness - the Government still plans to put responsibility for the NHS at arm's length from the health secretary, meaning that Parliament will find it harder to hold the NHS to account. Loopholes will allow commissioning consortia and foundation trusts to block the public from full access to their meetings and decision-making processes.

Examples of regional NHS birthday events:

Eastern

4 July - A slice will be removed from a giant cake at a birthday event with Richard Howitt Labour MEP, at 12 noon, at the Bury St Edmunds office. 5 July- Dozens of members will be marking the birthday with a listening event, which they have invited MPs to. Between 2-4.30pm members will be recording NHS messages for YouTube. The members will also be addressing concerns to a table of cardboard ‘ConDem MP' masks.

East Midlands

An NHS Birthday Card has been sent to every MP in the region and two cards will be hand delivered to Anna Soubry MP and Ken Clarke QC MP. 5 July: 11-12.30 - Lobby of Kenneth Clark MP and Anna Soubry MP constituency rooms. 12.30 -1pm NHS Birthday Buffet at UNISON's regional centre. From 1pm, members will be leafleting at NUH Nottingham. There will also be a party at Kettering and leafleting at Kings Mill Hospital.

Greater London

4 july - Ken Livingstone, Labour Mayoral Candidate, will be visiting UNISON members at Guys Hospital to celebrate the NHS birthday. He will cut a birthday cake at around 11am. 5 July - Camden & Islington Community Health Branch are hosting a roaming birthday party, which will start at St Pancras, and will travel around most of their sites in the afternoon. They will have 500 'I (HEART) NHS' cupcakes and will be distributing party goody bags. NHS Birthday celebrations will also take place at the NHS Blood and Transport site, Crescent Drive, Essex.

Northern region

5 July: South Tyneside Public Service Alliance will be presenting the signed NHS Birthday card to the Chief Executive, Lorraine Lambett, and Chair of the South Tyneside District Hospital, Peter Davidson, at 1pm on the hospital grounds - South Tyneside District Hospital. An event will also take place at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead, between 12-1.30pm.

North West

5 July Pennine Acute are organising a lunchtime event at North Manchester General Hospital. Central Manchester Health have a birthday celebration at lunchtime. Trafford Health are organising an all day birthday party at the hospital Liverpool Acute has an event between 12-4pm outside Liverpool Royal. Preston Hospital, Lancashire Teaching Hospital, Blackpool Victoria and East Lancashire Health will each have a lunchtime rally. Halton Hospital, Warrington Hospital and Arrowe Park Hospital and Clatterbridge - handing out leaflets and a raffle to win an NHS Birthday cake.

Scotland

Events at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Castle Street, between 12.30-1.30pm and also Inverness, Raigmore.

South East

5 July birthday events: Canterbury High Street - 11am-3pm, Medway Hospital - 11am-2pm, Canterbury - exhibition stall, North Hants Hospital & Royal Hampshire County Hospital - 11am-2pm, St James Hospital - 11am-2pm, Queen Alexandra Hospital - 11am-2pm. At Oak Tree, Antelope House, Western Community Hospital, Tom Rudd Unit, Royal South Hants Hospital there are birthday parties, with 'Adopt a Peer' cards, between 10am-2pm. Palmerstone Road, Southsea. 6.30pm will host a street party. Other events include Hastings Conquest Hospital - 10am-2pm, Eastbourne general Hospital - 10am- 2pm, Crawley Hospital - 7.30am-1pm, Lanchester House, Brighton - 12.30-1.30, Durrington Offices - 7.30-11am, Brighton General Hospital - 12.30-1.30, Friars Walk, Lewes - 11-12 noon, Wexham Park Hospital and Milton Keynes Hospital - staff will be at the hospital entrance from 10am to midday with birthday cake.

South West

5 July: 12-1pm - Members at The Knowledge Spa, Royal Cornwall Hospital, will be providing birthday cakes for the local acute and community hospitals. The hospitals will cut the cakes simultaneously to celebrate the success of the NHS with patients and members of the public. The candles represent beacons of hope for the future of the NHS, in the shadow of Andrew Lansley's reforms. West Dorset Health and East Dorset health branches will host a party with a cake and 1000 ‘NHS' labeled muffins. Devon Partnership and Community Health Branch will cut an NHS birthday cake at an event, which will coincide with the strike action at Exeter.

Wales

In Wales, UNISON has sent a birthday card to every MP, and Chief Executive with the message "...no society can legitimately call itself civilized if a sick person is denied medical aid because of a lack of means." On 5 July, members will meet by the Aneurin Bevan statue in Cardiff Central and hand out NHS birthday cards.

West Midlands

5 July, St Philips Cathedral - 12-4pm, Hereford High Town - 11-3pm, Russell's Hall Hospital - 10am-2pm and Stoke City Centre - 12-4pm - NHS birthday cards and cakes will be handed out.