Against NHS privatisation...

My name is Linda. I'm a long-standing 38 Degrees member, and I'm sending this email because I know first hand why it matters so much to stop the privatisation of our NHS.

On Friday afternoon, I will deliver a copy of the petition against NHS privatisation – which you and I have both signed – to the Health Minister.

When I hand the petition over, I will tell the Health Minister about what happened to my baby. He died when he was just seven weeks old whilst receiving care from my GP out-of-hours service – which had been recently privatised.

Can you help me have as many names as possible to hand in on Friday afternoon, by forwarding this email to as many of your friends as possible asking them to sign it too?

They can sign by simply clicking this link and adding their names:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-section75

Last week was a hard one for me. It was the inquest into the death of my baby son, Axel. He died last November from pneumonia. His illness went untreated despite repeated calls and visits over the course of five days to my NHS out-of-hours doctors' service, which had been recently privatised.

I feel the inquest left many of the biggest questions unanswered – like what role NHS privatisation may have played in the mistakes which led to the death of my baby boy.

After hearing evidence of how that private health contractor had acted, I feel determined to do all I can to stop further privatisation of our NHS. That’s why I’ve decided to get more involved with 38 Degrees, and why I'm going to see the Health Minister this Friday. I’d really appreciate it you could help me get more names on the petition before I meet him.

Please, pass this email on, and ask your friends to sign the petition for this important campaign:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-section75

We had a bit of a breakthrough with this campaign yesterday. The government announced that because of all the pressure they would withdraw and rewrite their NHS privatisation regulations. The petition which I'd signed, along with 240,000 other 38 Degrees members, was mentioned in Parliament. That shows we can make a difference.

But I remember, as I'm sure that you will, that when the government promises to rewrite a plan, that doesn't necessarily mean that the new version will be any better than the old one. We need to make sure they genuinely drop any attempt to force GPs to open up services to privatisation.

I would love to have as many signatures as possible by Friday afternoon when I visit the Health Minister. Please pass this message on to anyone you think might be interested:https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-section75

Thank you.

Linda

PS: You can read more about what happened to my baby in this piece in the Guardian:http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/mar/02/nhs-commercialisation-bereaved-mother-fight But please sign the petition first: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-section75

PPS: This email has been sent from Linda Peanberg King using the 38 Degrees system.