Keep Our NHS Public

Keep Our NHS Public (KONP) is a campaigning organisation, with local groups across England, committed to reversing the ongoing privatisation of the NHS and its services.

History

The group was founded in 2005 by the NHS Consultants Association, the NHS Support Federation and Health Emergency. It was very active in the campaign against the Health and Social Care Act 2012.[1]

It has local groups which are involved in campaigns against the closure or reorganisation of local hospitals, such as the Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign.[2] It attracted support from many existing health related campaigns such as Save Finsbury Health Centre[3] It has been very vocal in denouncing the use of private health providers to treat patients outside the health service.[4]

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Campaign

In early 2013 the American and EU governments began negotiating an agreement on free-trade between nations known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). KONP have since committed an ongoing effort to prevent the partnership and its provisions from leading to the increased marketisation of European healthcare systems, allowing the entrenching of privatised healthcare in the British NHS. KONP have established concerns with regards to the extent of deregulation on transnational companies, allowing them to sue national governments in certain situations.

The Organisation Listed Four key recommendations regarding the TTIP:

  1. Health and social care services should be completely exempted from the TTIP Treaty in a clear and watertight manner.
  2. The current ISDS should be removed from the TTIP Treaty and replaced by a state to state disputes resolution procedure, which prevents direct legal challenges by investors on commercial grounds.
  3. EU labour and medical and professional training and qualifications standards must be specifically protected under the TTIP Treaty.
  4. Without the broad exemption of health and social care and the removal of ISDS from the Treaty, the entire Treaty must be rejected.

References

  1. ↑ "February 17, 2011 KONP at the BMA". Socialist Health Association. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  2. ↑ "What You can do". Lewisham Keep Our NHS Public. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  3. ↑ "SaveFHC to continue campaigning". Save Finsbury Health Centre. February 16, 2011. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  4. ↑ "Half of £2bn NHS cash injection spent on outsourced private care providers labelled a 'disgrace'". Independent. 27 March 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
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