Many times on here I have advocated that we need to keep things simple to be successful. The Health and Care Act, that is presently going through the House of Commons grinder, gives us a fantastic opportunity to promote the independence cause and expose the ineptitude of Westminster rule.
There is no doubt that the English NHS is on the verge of total privatisation. The fall out from that in Barnet Consequential terms for Scotland means effectively our NHS will have no other option than to follow suit and go private. Funding will cease from the central government and only private finance will be available.That is the stark reality facing our nation. In 2014 the magnificent Dr. Philippa Whitford warned the nation that this would happen. Sadly 55% of those allowed to vote either did not believe her or care.
In 2014, Philippa Whitford said: “In five years, England will not have an NHS and in 10 years, if we vote no, neither will we.
She is only slightly out on her timings, Brexit accounts for that. The clock is ticking for Scotland we cannot delay, we need to act immediately.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/independence-referendum-top-surgeon-becomes-3836205
This week English doctors are warning of the impending disaster befalling the English NHS.
Doctor-led campaign organisation EveryDoctor points out that up to 11 per cent of the NHS’s budget already goes to private companies.
“This Bill will embed private companies in the NHS in England and give them the power to decide who gets what treatment when. No one should be profiting from public healthcare. It’s as black and white as that,” the organisation said.”
Health and care bill: Why are people protesting against the ‘NHS privatisation bill’?
Dubbing the bill, “the corporate takeover bill,” Labour, MP for Norwich South, Clive Lewis wrote in The Independent, “these reforms will usher in a huge transfer of decision-making power to private companies and democratically unaccountable third parties through innocuous sounding “Integrated Care Systems”, which will not guarantee my constituent’s right to access the healthcare they need, when they need it.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/health-and-care-bill-nhs-services-b1962696.html
The vast majority of Scots old and new support healthcare free at the point of delivery. The SNHS has served us all well. It has always been there when we have needed it. Now it needs us, will we ignore it and hope someone else rides to the rescue? I feel certain when people realise that their cradle to grave SNHS is going to disappear a great deal of anger will be released. It is imperative we capitalise on this anger and press the case for independence. The slogan should be simple,
Vote for Independence or lose your NHS.
Ever since the inception of the Welfare System, the Tories have wanted to reverse the Atlee NHS as well as all the other social reforms. To Tories there is more money to be made from a private health insurance model than with a state funded system of healthcare. Outcomes for public health are worse but the profits for the few are great. They will be fine, and they do not care about those that cannot afford to pay for private insurance. This is why the Tories want to bring in an American style healthcare system.
Union group UNITE have released a list of 70 MPs with proven links to private healthcare providers – and here’s the rum bit – all of these MPs voted in favour of the recent Health & Care Act, a bill that goes a long way towards privatising vast swathes of the English NHS.
There is also a court case looming in London over a proposed sell off of multiple medical practises.
The takeover of GP practices in London by US health insurance giant Centene Corporation will be subject of a judicial review in early 2022 after more than £70,000 has been raised by the public to fund the case, Unite the union said today (Friday, 19 November.)
https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2021/november/takeover-of-london-gp-practices-by-private-us-healthcare-company-set-for-judicial-review-in-new-year/
This is the start of the big sell off and if we remain inside the British Union the same fate awaits Scottish medical practices, hospitals and clinics. To appreciate the full horror of an American Healthcare system, you need to understand some facts from the US.
Medical bills are reported to be the number one cause of U.S. bankruptcies. One study has claimed that 62.1% of all bankruptcies in the US were caused by medical issues. Another claims that over 2 million people are adversely affected by their medical expenses.
Reports from different entities are constantly published, such as the survey results of people with employer-sponsored insurance by the Kaiser Family Foundation.(KFF) / LA Times Survey in 2019. The study found that 1 in 5 American people surveyed have been contacted by collection agencies, while 9% of those surveyed stated they had declared personal bankruptcy due to medical expenses.
https://www.thebalance.com/medical-bankruptcy-statistics-4154729
Despite all the media hype about an inefficient NHS and the great American Health system here are some alarming facts about health outcomes in US.
The life expectancy for men and women in the US in 2016 was 76.4 & 81.4 years while in the UK those numbers stood at 79.04 and 82.72.
Maternal deaths the US numbers are quite horrific in comparison to other developed nations.
Pre Covid Data from the US Census, Bureau indicates that a total of 27.5 million Americans had no health insurance whatsoever during 2018. Meanwhile, 100% of those in UK have 100% healthcare however, for how much longer?
https://policyadvice.net/insurance/insights/how-many-uninsured-americans/#:~:text=1.,no%20health%20insurance%20during%202018.
Infant mortality is another shocking statistic from the US.Today, the average rate of infant mortality among OECD countries is 3.8 deaths per 1,000 live births. At 5.8 deaths per 1,000 live births, the United States ranks No. 33 out of 36 OECD countries, only Mexico and Turkey have higher infant deaths.
https://www.americashealthrankings.org/learn/reports/2019-annual-report/international-comparison
If we do not want to have similar circumstances and outcomes in Scotland we need to act immediately. This Health and Care Bill is yet another material change in circumstances since the 2014 Referendum. I do not know how many and how severe these changes need to be before the Scottish Government will act.
To date our Scottish Government seem more interested in getting SNHS staff to wear Pride badges and sign a pledge rather than defend it from sell off.
NHS Scotland has announced the launch of its new staff Pride Badge. Staff members for NHS Scotland wishing to wear the badge are asked to pledge that they will: be aware of and responsive to issues faced by LGBTQ+ people accessing care.
It has been my experience that our health workers in Scotland have always been responsive to the issues faced by their patients irrespective of their sexual orientation, age, colour, ethnicity, religion or class!
Today to save our NHS and protect Scottish interests and citizens, Nicola Sturgeon needs to recall all SNP MPs from Westminster. She should also advise Alba and the English Registered parties operating in Scotland to do likewise.
A Citizens Assembly should be called and all elected representatives of the Sovereign people of Scotland should be summoned to attend. It is only the MPs, MSPs and councillors elected by the people of Scotland that have the right to determine Scotland’s governance. After due consultation a decision should be taken to withdraw from the Treaty if Union of 1707.
When this is in the affirmative our Citizens Assembly should instruct our elected officials to immediately begin secession negotiations with England. There were only two signatories in 1707, and it was our Commissioners that made the decision to join the Union. Therefore, it is only fit and proper our modern-day commissioners our MPs, MSPs and Councillors make the decision to withdraw.
On the same day, notification of the decision of the Sovereign people of Scotland should be relayed to the United Nations and The European Union. At the same time we should also notify every nation on the planet of our democratic choice to withdraw from The Treaty of Union. We should at that point ask nations for international recognition.
It will take fortitude to take such bold action. However, we Scots throughout our history have shown when we are pressed we are able to achieve great things.
The alternative is to remain silently inside this accursed Union and watch everything we hold dear either sold off or stolen to enrich a few in England while our own countrymen and women suffer. Since 1707 our nation has been exploited and abused by our southern neighbour. It is time to say enough!
If you want to keep our SNHS intact our Scottish water in public hands and see our nation prosper and grow this is what must happen. There can be no more delay. The Health and Care Act has to be the catalyst for action.
We will get whatever England votes for! Nicola has ensured that outcome.
Foreign Wars
Weapons of Mass destruction.
Child Poverty
Pension Poverty
Drug Deaths
A privatised NHS
A long list that you are all familiar with.
She accepts all of that to pursue the erasure of Women’s Rights. She will focus on issues she feels confident to deliver. She cannot risk her “reputation” on Independence. She needs to blame others for that. A Scotland under Westminster control is the perfect stage for her ego.
“I achieved that!, Westminster did all the bad things”
The Selfie Queen has created the perfect construct for her talents.
Vote for Independence or lose your NHS – sounds like a good slogan to me. However, since we’ve decided to simply withdraw from the Union, how about – INDEPENDENCE TO SAVE THE NHS
I am relaxed about the words as long as the message gets over. As ‘Take Back Control’ showed slogans wins over in depth facts!
The only slogan the SNP have is “TransWomen are Women”. When Westminster takes a harder line in defending the Equalities Act and when the Tories announce that they will strongly support Women’s Rights then division is guaranteed. Sturgeon is dividing a movement not leading it.
Slogans do Work and the Tories are experts at using them. They know how to exploit division and this time they can skip the first step of creating it.
One thing is for sure, if we are waiting on Sturgeon to save the SNHS it is already doomed!
Sturgeon isn’t going to save the fully devolved NHS
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1214498/general-election-news-nicola-sturgeon-nhs-deal-us-firm-contract
The SNP leadership (sic) will do hee and haw on this matter and pretty much all others except erasing biological reality. Unless the general public who vote SNP for indy find out that she/her has ZERO intention of delivering independence then Scotland is screwed, given our historic poor health outcomes privatisation of the SNHS will result in bankruptcies and death rates that make the US figures look positively rosy.
Still more room for internal migrants from rUK if the Scots are all kicking the bucket and voila colonisation is complete.
PLEASE let me be wrong.
With the outstanding exception of Alba’s two MPs, I’m hearing little to nothing at all from the party on the multitude of issues facing Scotland, including NHS privatisation. That we’re damned by a completely compromised MSM is a huge factor in this state of affairs, is beyond doubt. My personal choice is to belong to no party or organisation, but that’s never stopped me in the past from working alongside, when they had such a thing, SNP activists and being more than happy to do so, and still am. What’s happened to leaflet-drops and street stalls and talking face-to-face to people? Good luck at the N.E.C.!
The pandemic has been a godsend for the Tory capitalists, the narrative is one of, we’ll need to charge folk at the point of service now because our NHS is on its knees and too many folk need medical treatment but we don’t have the resources to provide a proper service.
They can’t provide a proper service because they’ve been underfunding the NHS for decades now that in my opinion was the plan all along. As Noam Chomsky said, If you want to remove a public funded service first you need to defund it, the public will cry out for something else to replace it, and that’s where the private sector comes in.
England’s NHS was always in the crosshairs of the capitalists, our own health service in now in those crosshairs, and a USA trade deal will ultimately include our SNHS, unless we the people demonstrate en masse to stop it, of course we cannot now protest outside Holyrood, the SNP saw to that.
The SNP has been cutting funds from the fully devolved Scottish NHS and YOU were one of the cheerleaders happy for that to happen not too long ago.
https://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/media/1940/publicpolicywp-public_spending_scotland.pdf
Roddy,if our politicians won’t convene an assembly then we the sovereign people of Scotland must take direct action and convene it ourselves.
After all the politicians are only our representatives, we the people are the real power in this land.
One of my heroes Martin Luther king organised a million man march for civil rights, in the face of huge oppression, we the sovereign Scottish people can and must organise an open air million man and women citizens assembly to demand the repeal the treaty of 1707 asap.
Our politicians have failed US we the people must save Scotland and everything that is good and which we hold dear snhs etc in our land. There will be no more Scotland to call our land if we don’t.