The pro-NHS rebellion starts in South West Surrey

On June 8th 2017 South West Surrey could be the unlikely scene of a political revolution.

On Saturday May 6th a packed meeting of people from across the political spectrum selected a qualified doctor as a unity candidate to stand against the Tory health secretary Jeremy Hunt in his own constituency.

Dr Louise Irvine is a GP, a medical training expert and a seasoned political campaigner who has focused mainly but not exclusively on defending the NHS. Probably her greatest political achievements to date came when she helped campaigners to defeat Jeremy Hunt 's plan to force the closure of Lewisham Hospital.

Irvine said "I am very concerned that our beloved NHS is being run down, privatised, fragmented and underfunded ...This is an issue that affects everyone in the country. If we don’t all stand up for it now, it will be destroyed" and she's not exaggerating. Here are 16 ways in which Jeremy Hunt and the Tories are damaging our NHS.

The Green Party have already agreed to not stand any candidate in the South West Surrey Constituency. Labour and the Liberal Democrats have yet to decide.

The state of the NHS

• The Tories imposed £20 billion in NHS cuts between 2010 and 2015, and now they're imposing another £22 billion in NHS cuts , which include secret plans to close down dozens of hospitals and other NHS facilities.

• After his plan to force the closure of Lewisham Hospital Jeremy Hunt introduced new rules to make it much easier for them to force the closure of NHS services without taking the views of local people or staff into consideration.

• Waiting list times and waiting times at A&E departments have been rising, but instead of investing in the NHS to overcome these problems Jeremy Hunt simply scraps any waiting targets that are being missed.

• Theresa May's decision to scrap NHS bursaries has caused a massive 10,000 decline in the number of people applying to study nursing courses this year alone meaning the already serious NHS recruitment crisis is set to get an awful lot worse over the coming years.

• Ever more NHS services being carved up and given away to profiteering private sector health companies like Serco, Virgin Health and (the major Tory party donors) Circle.

• NHS staff have suffered years of below inflation pay rises for NHS staff whilst MPs bagged a whopping great 10% pay rise for themselves.

• The Tories imposed a £4.6 billion cut in the social care budget meaning that already overstretched hospitals that are having to pick up the pieces.

• Jeremy Hunt has been waging a needless ideological war with the junior doctors. Despite the efforts of the pro-Tory press to demonise the junior doctors the majority of the public believe that Hunt is to blame for the dispute.

• Jeremy Hunt famously advised people that they should Google their health symptoms instead of seeking medical advice. You don't need to be a health professional to understand that A Health Secretary telling people to Google their symptoms instead of consulting a medical expert is a risk to public health.

• The Tories wasted £3 billion their massive 2012 top down reorganisation of the NHS that the Tories repeatedly promised not to do before they sneaked back into power in 2010.

• Scores of A&E units, maternity wards, mental health facilities and NHS walk in centres have been shut down by the Tories since 2010, causing increased demand elsewhere in the NHS.

• The Tories have drawn up secret plans being drawn up to close even more A&E units, maternity wards and walk in centres., but they're not going to announce which facilities and services they plan to shut down until after the election. It could be your local hospital at risk.

• Jeremy Hunt has overseen a massive debt crisis in the NHS with primary care trusts all over England slumping into deficit.

• The Tories are always going on about how much they care about mental health issues, but they continue to slash the mental health budget and even instruct their outsourcing contractors to specifically discriminate against people with mental health conditions.

• The Chairman of Conservative Health has openly said that the only way the Tories could bring in charging for NHS services is if there was a feeling in the country that the NHS is "falling apart".

• NHS staff are being made to cope with increasing demand for services while funds and staffing levels are being slashed year after year. Workers can only be asked to do more with less for a certain amount of time before the system breaks.

What we can do

• If you have a Labour or Liberal Democrat MP (or other political representative) please consider contacting them and ask them to speak to the party leadership in favour of standing down their candidates in South West Surrey so that Louise Irvine has the best possible chance of unseating Jeremy Hunt.

• If you are a member of Labour or the Liberal Democrats use your voice as a member in order to speak in favour of your party standing down their candidates so that Irvine has a free run at Jeremy Hunt.

• Say a few kind words to the Green Party for putting the interests of the NHS above their own party political interests.

• If you live in South West Surrey or nearby, consider joining Louise Irvine's campaign to unseat Jeremy Hunt.

• No matter where you live don't forget to make sure you are registered to vote, and to encourage others to register to vote too. 

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