Lansley still isn't listening - Save the NHS!

There have been many alarms about the future of the NHS - remember the 1997 general election slogan from Labour "48 hours to save the NHS"? Well now the NHS really is in real danger and Lansley's Bill must be stopped in its tracks. 38 degrees have launched the following petition which alreay has nearly half a million signatories. Sign now!

Dear Joseph,

Health minister Andrew Lansley's so-called NHS "listening exercise" ends on Tuesday. He wants to use the occasion to claim he's listened - then plough ahead with dangerous changes to our health service. So he's not going to be too pleased to see adverts across the newspapers, funded by donations from thousands of 38 Degrees members, showing him with his fingers in his ears.

The "listening exercise" ends in six days. We'll deliver a copy of the Save the NHS petition on the final day. Let's make sure that our huge petition, being carried in to Andrew Lansley's office – in full view of the media – becomes the enduring image of the whole process. That would stop him being able to use the "listening exercise" to justify dangerous changes to the NHS.

The petition has over 390,000 signatures so far. Can you help make it even bigger by next Tuesday by adding your name?

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/Save-our-NHS

It's no surprise the Save the NHS petition is growing so fast. The NHS is a matter of life and death. We rely on it to look after us and our loved ones. So many experts - doctors, nurses, health charities, patients' groups - are all warning that Lansley's plans could spell the end of the NHS as we know it. We just can't risk that happening. [1]

Lansley's "listening exercise" has been carefully stage-managed from start to finish to paint a positive picture for the media. When 38 Degrees members went to meet their MP in Sheffield, they found out that there'd been a "listening exercise" in their city just hours earlier - but it had been kept secret until after it was over. [2] That's been the story across the country.

Thanks to donations from thousands of 38 Degrees members, Save the NHS adverts exposing the sham "listening exercise" will be in newspapers with a combined circulation of over 6 million people today. Check out the adverts, and add your name to the petition, here:

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/Save-our-NHS

Working together, we are making it impossible for politicians to gloss over concerns about their NHS plans. 38 Degrees members voted in February to make the NHS our top priority. Since then hundreds of thousands of us have signed the petition, emailed and visited our MPs, and donated to run adverts in the newspapers.

We're turning the tide, but we're not there yet. So now let's make sure we have as big a petition as possible to deliver to the "listening exercise" next Tuesday. Please add your name here:

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/Save-our-NHS

Thanks for being involved,

Johnny, Marie, Becky, David, Hannah, Cian and the 38 Degrees team

PS: You can see which papers our ads are in here: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/our-lansley-ads

NOTES

Quote from Dr Hamish Meldrum: http://www.politics.co.uk/interviews/health/interview-bma-s-hamish-meldrum-$21388805.htm

[1] http://38degrees.org.uk/pages/save-our-nhs-who-is-worried

[2] http://www.leftfootforward.org/2011/05/andrew-lansley-nick-clegg-still-not-listening-on-nhs/