Keep Our NHS Public is a grassroots, non-party political campaign dedicated to defending and rebuilding the NHS as a fully funded, publicly provided health service, free to everyone at the point of use.
It has an Oxfordshire branch to which Keep the Horton General Campaign Group is affiliated. As well as working to defend Horton services, we support KONP’s mission to
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End Privatisation: Halt the outsourcing of NHS clinical and support services to for-profit companies and bring previously outsourced services back in-house.
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Rebuild & Fully Fund: Expand and properly fund the NHS through public funds to tackle waiting lists, improve infrastructure and ensure safe, comprehensive care.
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Protect the Founding Principles: Restore the service so it remains universal, comprehensive and based strictly on clinical need, not the ability to pay.
KONP’s Felicity Dowling, of the campaign to Save Liverpool Women’s Hospital campaign, has written the Call to Action on Maternity which you can read in the link below.
“The national Maternity crisis is coming into full public view. Women and babies have suffered grievously during these times. Staff have been under huge pressure and have endured burnout and bullying,” she writes.
“The reality is bitter for many women, for many families, and the scale of the loss has been largely ignored by politicians and governments. The NHS’ top management has done little to help. There is sorrow and bitterness amongst many women and their families.”Felicity says urgent action is required to address the problems in Maternity services. Women and babies have suffered grievously while governments and NHS leadership have largely ignored the scale of the losses.
The damage stems from prolonged austerity, chronic underfunding, severe staffing shortages and systemic disrespect for women and babies in government policies.
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Midwives work 100,000 unpaid hours weekly; 87% report unsafe staffing levels
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UK maternal death rates are 20% higher than 2009-11 levels, with suicide the leading cause of death in new mothers
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Maternity negligence claims have reached £27.4 billion—exceeding the entire maternity budget
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31 maternity units have closed since 2014