NHS staff are fighting on all fronts to provide care in the toughest conditions ever seen in our NHS.
Out of this huge struggle must come far better support for the NHS and our health staff.
It is more important than ever as thousands of non-covid patients are suffering the distress of having their treatment delayed.
A decade of underinvestment in staff and equipment, wasteful reorganizations, and the rapid increase in the use of the private sector has already prevented the NHS from adapting to the rising demands of our population
And despite the mighty efforts of staff, they have been let down by the failure of policy leading to countless crises in recent years.
We support the NHS but three things stop the community must make their count and put pressure
- Misinformation and lies about what’s happening – from politicians and through social media.
- Lack of awareness of what’s happening in the NHS and the complexity of the issues.
- Lack of opportunity to challenge our politicians with the evidence
This is why In 2019 we set up The Lowdown to produce evidence-based, campaigning journalism and research for the public and NHS staff.
Run by journalists and researchers to help explain, expose the facts, analyze policy, and connect with campaigns to challenge our politicians.
Working together we want to create the change the NHS needs; by supporting a more truthful and informed public debate, by helping to empower NHS supporters and by challenging our politicians to do better.
It’s a free resource, produced every two weeks it provides NHS supporters with their own source of information and resources that campaigners and activists have needed for some time.
We need your support to bring this project to more people
Working together we want to create the change the NHS needs; by supporting a more truthful and informed public debate, by helping to empower NHS supporters and by challenging our politicians to do better.
WHAT WE DO
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- Alert the public to threats to the idea of health care for all
- Counter misinformation and false claims,
- investigate key issues like privatisation, staffing and patient safety
- Publish evidence about how to solve the crisis,
- Publicise the campaigns and views of NHS staff and the public
WHY?
The NHS does not To help watch over the NHS and to build a community of informed NHS supporters, who can influence and safeguard its future.
Many people are doing fantastic work in support of the NHS; staff, campaigners, trade unions and other journalists and our work is designed to give them the evidence and analysis they need.
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“It is a classy fount of investigative journalism,” David Baines, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Newcastle University
‘Great journalism giving campaigners the evidence we rely on to defend the NHS – a really valuable asset.” Tony O’Sullivan, Co-chair Keep Our NHS Public
WHO ARE WE?
Paul Evans (NHS Support Federation) and Dr John Lister (London Health Emergency, KONP and HCT), with over 50 years combined experience between them as researchers and campaigners are leading this project to build a news and investigation unit to inform NHS supporters and workers.
We have a small staff team and a growing community of freelance contributors. we are non-profit making, independent and our work is evidence based and freely available.
We are committed to helping to train and support the next generation of health journalists, as they are an essential tool in holding our politicians and health leaders to account and getting to the truth.
WHAT MOTIVATES US?
We have watched the NHS become a punch bag, hit by constant reform and a series of failed policies; leaving it where it is today – understaffed, underfunded and struggling to plan and deliver care in all the ways that our population needs.
Even so, NHS staff still manage to care for millions of patients successfully everyday. So in the NHS we have a brilliant concept, that has worked in practice for over 70 years but which has been regularly under supported and undermined by government policy.
A crucial factor is that the public has been consistently misled about national policy. And locally, decisions about the planning of our services have become more remote from the public.
However, we have seen some powerful interventions by local communities, campaigners and trade unions, often defending services that are under threat. They have proved that when people have the information and get organised they have can engineer impressive change.
These experiences inspired us to develop a resource that can help build a bigger community of NHS supporters who are knowledgable and prepared to defend the values of the NHS.
HOW WE WORK
We alert people to threats and help them get involved.
Last year we raised the alarm about plans to privatise a world renown NHS cancer scanning service in Oxford, which were proceeding against the advice of NHS staff.
We published briefings about the plans and investigated the company that won the contract, reporting the story week by week. Our researchers published evidence about the impact of outsourcing in other areas and talked to staff about the potential impact.
The result of the local campaign was a climb down from the plan, confirming that local people can influence policy when they work together.
We have written over 500 news, analysis and explainers on the key NHS issues. which we promoted across social media every week and make available with no pay wall.
Thousands of young people rejected by mental health services
American firms scooping up NHS mental health contracts
Real anger unites Northern Ireland’s health unions striking for fair pay
50 contract failures found in NHS outsourcing review (2013-2019)
Election: fact Vs fiction on all the key NHS issues
We rely on our supporters to do the work we do – standing up for health care for all – Please help us with a donation
Supplying the national media with evidence
Our researchers work on key issues like privatisation, tracking changes and investigating the activities of companies. By working with journalists like Denis Campbell at the Guardian we have provided evidence and comment on string of stories to show the public the scale and impact of privatisation.
It was our work that first revealed the scale of Virgin Care’s role in the NHS. All this work is uploaded on to the NHS for sale website and now through The Lowdown we can keep raising this issue much more regularly.
Countering misinformation
More prevalent than ever, misinformation pollutes the public view of our NHS. How often do we hear health ministers declare that the NHS has the funding it needs, or will never be privatised, or has record numbers of staff and that new hospitals will soon be built. It is crucial to sort the fact from the fiction and to challenge the source, which is what we do.
Promoting debate about the solutions
There ais alreday a wide range of well searched ideas about what direction our health service should go. There is experience that we can draw upon from other countries. There are issue like social care kicked into the long grass by politicians, but we stcik with them.
Work alongside campaigners and trade unions
By talking to communities, NHS staff and trade union members we stay in touch with their experience of the health service. We publish their views when it helps to inform the public about whats happening inside their NHS.
A good example is the transfer of thousands of NHS staff into private companies, created by the NHS itself – which is happening in many areas few people know about it and we are working with trade unions to alert people to the impact through a whole series of stories and explainers that we promote across social media.
With your help we can alert, inform and connect NHS supporters across the country to defend their local services and push for the support that the NHS needs.
Thanks you all you help and support, please donate if you can.
Dear Reader,
If you like our content please support our campaigning journalism to protect health care for all.
Our goal is to inform people, hold our politicians to account and help to build change through evidence based ideas.
Everyone should have access to comprehensive healthcare, but our NHS needs support. You can help us to continue to counter bad policy, battle neglect of the NHS and correct dangerous mis-infomation.
Supporters of the NHS are crucial in sustaining our health service and with your help we will be able to engage more people in securing its future.
Please donate to help support our campaigning NHS research and journalism.