Another press cutting

(Birmingham Mail, October 31st 2007)

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NBS campaigners at NHS demo in London

Staff and supporters march together with an urgent message.
Saturday 3rd November 2007

Facebook 'Save our Blood Service' group

Anyone with a Facebook account can join a group in opposition to the centralisation of blood testing and processing, and in favour of saving local labs and NBS staff's jobs. It has links to the petition and other ideas for supporters. The group currently has 662 members with more joining every week!

Simply use the Facebook search facility to find 'Save Our Blood Service'.

Please join it and invite all your friends, as this is a useful way to spread the word about the campaign.

Strategy review underway and everything to play for

The NBS centralisation strategy is currently undergoing review by the consultant agency McKinsey & Co. McKinsey are well-known for being the government's favourite choice of consultants in cases of NHS reorganisation (a.k.a. cuts), as this story illustrates, and boast Enron amongst their past clients...

Well-prepared NBS staff reps have been meeting with McKinsey to put forward our comprehensive arguments against the strategy. Here is one document for submission, which details not only the defensive case but suggests better alternative future directions for the NBS (link also added to links section on right of page).

The review alone is no guarantee that the restructuring plans will be stopped, so supporters can still help by contacting the media, who can help to raise awareness, or your city council, who can intervene if they feel they have not been properly consulted about what the closure of local labs will mean for hospitals.

This link will take you to a page where you can find your local Public and Patient Involvement Forum. This is another way for NHS users to formally get involved in debating plans for health service reconfigurations. Please send a copy of the document above to your area's PPI Forum.