All together for the NHS

CSP members explain their opposition to the Health & Social Care bill. Video: ARC 2012

Negative effects of Health Bill

The government is planning the biggest and costliest reorganisation of the NHS in its history.

All at a time when spending cuts are already pushing up waiting times and threatening patient care, ministers are wasting £3.45 billion.

The Health Bill will extend competition and fragment the NHS. It will stop health workers cooperating and privatise vital parts of the health service.

Hospitals will be allowed to reserve half of their beds for private patients, threatening the rest of us with longer queues.

Every single health professional group in the NHS and those who use it are telling the government they must think again.

Physiotherapy staff fear increased competition will undermine co-operation and the sharing of good practice between clinicians. They fear it will drive down quality standards. CSP members in the NHS are growing increasingly concerned about their ability to deliver the services that patients and local communities need and deserve.

The Bill is still in the House of Lords and this is our best chance to change the government proposals for a number of weeks before it returns to the House of Commons where the government can whip it through.

We still have time to stand up and defend the NHS - and show peers, MPs and ministers just how unpopular these proposals are.

Find out more about our policies and lobbying efforts over the Health Bill: www.csp.org.uk/nhsreforms.

Any Qualified Provider

Any Qualified Provider will dramatically increase competition in the NHS: check out CSP resources to help you protect your NHS service: www.csp.org.uk/aqp

Campaigning against NHS cuts

The CSP is also campaigning against cuts to the NHS:

• For CSP resources on budget-driven cuts and local attacks on jobs, terms and conditions see www.csp.org.uk/financialchallenge
• To find out about a local campaign against cuts to the NHS and other public services near you visit http://falseeconomy.org.uk/

Vigil for the NHS, 7 September 2011

The CSP joined other health unions for a candlelit vigil to mark the moment the Health Bill passed from the Commons to the Lords on 7 September 2011. Candles were chosen as a symbol of hope for the future of NHS.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber, physiotherapist Vickie Yeardley, CSP chair Ann Green and Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis at the NHS vigil in London. Photo: Stefano Cagnoni

See our news story for coverage of the event: Health workers hold protest vigil as MPs vote.

Happy Birthday NHS

On 5 July it was 63 years since the NHS was founded. With the NHS facing major threats in the Health Bill and roll out of Any Qualified Provider, the CSP joined other health unions and in marking the birthday of one of Britain's most popular institutions. See our Frontline story Happy birthday, NHS.