Saturday, January 28, 2012

Using The Web to Lobby Your College

The number of visits to the site has been amazing.

We have got our heads together and decided we need to ramp up the pressure on the Medical Royal Colleges. Individual Members/Fellows should have a voice and we want to be able to give you that voice. Remember this Bill has huge implications for education and training so it is vital Colleges and their Members/Fellows are able to give their opinions on this topic.

So we are setting up a survey which allows you to anonymously add your name and membership number if you wish to call an Extraordinary Meeting for you to discuss and formulate your College policy on the Health Bill. We will collate these names and numbers and send them to the Colleges asking for an EGM. This is confidential.

We have set this up on

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LobbyYourCollege

Please ask your colleagues to complete the survey too.

The Royal College of Radiologists have set a date for an EGM. The Faculty of Public Health have already had an EGM. There are many more that need to do so.

If you are a trainee (or Associate as you are often called) please do lobby your College - you are the future of your College and your voice is very important.



Best wishes and lets keep the pressure up.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Emergency General Meetings

First of all - many thanks for the fantastic response to this website asking doctors to contact their Royal College asking them to represent their views on the damaging English Health Bill.

Time is of the essence now and we have some Colleges making statements of support for the Bill such as the RCS (Eng) , RCP (London) which seem at odds with the messages we are receiving through this lobbying website. Doctors are telling us that they do not want their College to 'work with the government' or 'try to improve the Bill' - they want the Bill stopped dead in its tracks.

We feel that the members of Royal Colleges should be able to have their say. After all they pay a great deal of money each year to the Colleges for them to represent their views!

That is why we are now calling for doctors to ask their own College how they go about arranging an Emergency Meeting to discusss the Health Bill in order to formulate democratic policy - policy from the grassroots doctors who pay the subscriptions to keep the Colleges active.

It can be done - the Faculty of Public Health had an Emergency Meeting this week which voted overwhelmingly to oppose the Bill - sending a forceful message to the coalition government and FPH leadership.

We need to send this message to all the College hierarchy and we are asking for your help to contact your College (by phone or email) asking how you go about organising an Emergency Meeting and how many members are needed to call for one to occur. Feel free to add a messgage to the comment button below with your contact details and we will get back to you - or add messages for your colleagues on who to contact at your College. You may need to ask for the 'constitution' of the College or the 'standing orders' of the College Council to seek how to go about calling for an Emergency Meeting.

Best wishes and let's keep the pressure on. We will update the website with more information very soon.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Urgent - Lobby Your College

This website has been set up to allow doctors to lobby their Medical Royal Colleges about the Health and Social Care Bill currently in the House of Lords.
In only a few weeks time this Health Bill could become law. Your input is urgently needed.

The Bill
   - poses an enormous risk to the future of a viable equitable NHS.
   - allows the elected Secretary of State to abdicate his or her ultimate responsibility for the NHS.
   - allows local hospitals to earn up to 49% of their income from private patients meaning NHS patients will wait longer for their care.
   - will tranform a cost effective public service into a healthcare market.
   - has no democratic mandate. We were promised 'no top down re-organisation of the NHS' prior to the election yet we now see this enormously damaging NHS upheaval before us which is already proving a huge distraction to all NHS workers.

Continuing with the implementation of the Bill carries far more risk than stopping it now and withdrawing it.

The Bill is now opposed by the British Medical Association, the NHS Consultants Association, the Royal College of Nursing,  Royal College of Midwives, Unison and Unite.

The Bill has now received a damning report from the Health Select Committee

We now ask for the help of all doctors who are members of a Royal College to lobby your own College about the Health Bill, advise them that you are opposed to the Health Bill and ask them to speak out on your behalf.

We ask you to cut and paste the template email below and then click on the link for your own College which should allow you to send the email easily. Of course feel free to design your own email.

It would be helpful to know how many of you have contacted your College so please add your name to the 'comment' section below (or initials if you prefer to remain anonymous).
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Dear College President,

I am writing to you as a member of our College. I have major concerns over the Health Bill currently in the House of Lords and ask that you speak out and oppose this damaging policy.

The Bill lacks a democratic mandate and carries enormous threats to the structure and function of the NHS.  It threatens quality, training and standards, all of which fall within the remit of our College. The risks of continuing with this legislation are now felt to be greater than the risks of stopping it.

Our medical leaders need to lobby against the legislation. Please join the BMA, RCN and RCM in publicly opposing the Bill and calling for its withdrawal.

Yours sincerely,



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List of Royal Colleges and their email addresses you can click after you have copied and pasted


Royal College of Physicians         infocentre@rcplondon.ac.uk
Royal College of Surgeons           chiefexecutive@rcseng.ac.uk or president@rcseng.ac.uk
Royal College of GPs                  president@rcgp.org.uk
Royal College of Radiologists       president@rcr.ac.uk
Royal College of O&G                 president@rcog.org.uk
Royal College of Psychiatrists     reception@rcpsych.ac.uk
Royal College of Paediatrics        president@rcpch.ac.uk
Royal College of Pathologists      president@rcpath.org
Royal College of Anaesthetists    president@rcoa.ac.uk
Faculty of Public Health              president@fph.org.uk
College of Emergency Medicine  mc.prescem@gmail.com  - Mr Mike Clancy
Faculty of Sexual & Reproductive Health President -   dhalfnight@fsrh.org 
Chair of Academy of Medical Royal Colleges - Professor Sir Neil Douglas
                                                neil.douglas@aomrc.org.uk