Keep our NHS Public Review

Last week, Eileen Smith from Keep our NHS visited AS Citizenship students to give them an insight into how the campaign worked and the history of the NHS.

Eileen ran an activity designed to encourage the students to think about the views of different groups of people in relation to healthcare and explained to them what healthcare was like before the NHS existed.

She raised the issue of healthcare being a human right that should be accessible for everyone and went on to explain how the campaign for saving the NHS operated through the channels of active democracy, such as protests, attending meetings, calling doctors and education.

Eileen gave an up-to-date and knowledgeable presentation concluding with practical things that students can do to support her cause if they wanted to. Many questions were asked about the purpose of privatisation of the NHS and what the alternative to saving money would be. Eileen explained that competition hinders development and development in medicine will eventually lower costs overall.