#ournhs

And there you have it! Part 2

Former NHS head explaining exactly how the NHS Crisis has been created.

See here for the dates of other upcoming actions in the UK

Details:

Saturday 4th March 12-3pm

Starting point: Gay’s The Word, 66 Marchmont Street, WC1N 1AB London (Nearest Tubes: Russel Square, Euston or King’s Cross St Pancras)

March route: joining the demo at Tavistock Square, then towards Parliament

Transport is being arranged from across the country. See here for Coach info.

#OurNHS           #QueerNHS

- LGBTQI+ Demonstration:

*For a fully funded, publicly owned, NHS & social care service

*No cuts, no closures, no privatisation

*Increase of Gender Identity Clinic services and the realisation of how the long waiting list affects the quality of life of Non-binary and trans folk

*End discriminatory withholding of HIV preventing PrEP medication

*Accurate education for staff dealing with trans and non binary folk's

*End the pay restraint for NHS staff

*Protect migrant workers in the NHS

Called by Health Campaigns Together & The People's Assembly

Supported by Action for Trans Health, ACT UP London, Sexual Avengers, LGBT+ Against IslamOphobia

Twitter: @NHS_demo

We urge you to mobilise queers and the LGBT+ community in your networks to join this Queer Bloc for the NHS

Let's create artwork, banners, placards, chants here. Share your ideas.

www.healthcampaignstogether.com

www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk

We must fight to save the NHS from destruction. The threat is real. It is happening now. Hospitals, GPs, mental health, ambulance and community services are on their knees.

Average waiting times for someone referred to a Gender Identity Clinic in England have risen to between 12-18 months, according to UK Trans Info, as the NHS struggles to cope with the increase with referrals having almost quadrupled in 10 years, from 498 in 2006-07 to 1,892 in 2015-16.

Private companies are gaining an ever greater foothold within the NHS. Years of pay restraint has seen the value of NHS staff salaries reduce by 14% since 2010. The Government’s Sustainability and Transformation Plans are a smokescreen for a massive programme of hospital and community service closures, and are its latest instrument for privatisation.

In the last year, 3% of gay men and 5% of bisexual men had tried to kill themselves compared with 0.4% of all men. Over the same period, 7% of gay and bisexual men had deliberately harmed themselves, compared with just 3% of all men.

Mental health issues were even more acute among younger gay and bisexual men: of those aged 16 to 24, 6% had tried to take their own life in the last year and 15% had harmed themselves. Domestic abuse was another serious problem: half of those surveyed had experienced at least one incident from a family member or partner since the age of 16, compared with 17% of all men.

Some cancer protocols are sex/gender-specific based on assumptions about what body parts men and women have. It is difficult to know what to recommend for trans people.

The NHS is one of our greatest achievements. We cannot allow it to be undermined and ultimately destroyed. Join us on Saturday 4 March and send a clear message to this Government.

The cause of the strikes on the railways.

Mick Lynch in The House of Commons yesterday.