Advocate
- What is advocacy?
- Medsin's Advocacy
- Action of the week
- Current Campaigns
- Campaigns Calendar
- Policy statements
Current Campaigns
Medsin's Advocacy happens throughout the network through different channels. Aside from the National and Regional Policy and Advocacy Directors, there are National Working Groups and Activities that focus on campaigning. Medsin also adds the student voice to external advocacy.
Homelessness Kills- Crisis campaign
But health services can do better

Our friends at Homed told us about this campaign which Crisis, the national charity for single homeless people are running. They need Medsinners to get behind it!
New research for Crisis has shown that homeless people die 30 years before the national average, at just 47 - a shocking statistic that has not improved in the last two decades.
For too long homeless people have been failed by the health system – frequently left unable to register with a GP or access the specialist services they need.
We are demanding NHS reforms that take homeless people's health needs seriously.
- Ask your MP for better health care for homeless people (see http://www.crisis.org.uk/pages/homelessness-kills.html to write to them)
- Tell your friends on facebook and twitter to take action!
World AIDS Day 1st December
Huge progress has been made since HIV was first identified over 30 years ago. However if we slow up now, all of these efforts might have been in vain. So we’re asking… Why Stop Now? How do I explain the campaign?
Key to this campaign is going out and galvanising support for a strong AIDS response. So, we need you to be talking about it in local meetings, to your family, or down the pub with some friends. Here’s some tips on what you can say.
- Huge progress has been made since HIV was first identified over 30 years ago.
- A tipping point in the epidemic is now within our reach.
- All it takes is governments like the UK investing enough funds, in the right interventions for the right people.
- If we scale up the response now, and see that tipping point passed, we can save billions in future investments and countless lives.
- Help us put pressure on the UK government to announce they will develop a blueprint, mapping how they will lead the HIV response both in the UK and globally, on 1st December.
What can you do?
1. Write to David Cameron
Write to the Prime Minister to announce they will develop a blueprint, mapping how they will lead the HIV response both in the UK and globally, on 1st December. Go to www.whystopnow.org to sign the letter and for more ways to take action!
NHS Privatisation
The NHS was founded on the principles or being a national health service which is free from the point of use and provided as a public service by people employed in the NHS and accountable to the public and parliament. Andrew Lansley’s Health and Social Care Bill had massive opposition from doctors, nurses, all of the health unions, the Labour Party and the vast majority of the public in England yet it was still passed.
Why should Medsin fight for the NHS?
- The bill allows private companies to move in and start to provide parts of health services that will make them money. This has already started to happen. One example is that Virgin Care was recently awarded a £130 million contract to provide children’s services in Devon:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-19841048
For more info on how you can help please see: http://www.keepournhspublic.com/index.php, join the 38 degrees NHS campaign or join Medsin's NWG on the NHS (please see below.)
For what you can do RIGHT NOW see here: http://www.medsin.org/advocate/action-of-the-week/we-need-your-help-to-reclaim-the-nhs
We can save our NHS together!
Delivering a better life
Our previous campaigning action was focused on maternal and child health. Click here to find out what you can do to make a tangible difference.

1. View our new maternal and child health campaigns.
2. Enter the debate on the post 2015 development agenda and sign our open letter asking for universal health care to be a core component.
3. Sign our petition to David Cameron about breakfast club closures and child poverty in the UK
National Working Groups
We have a range of national working groups on different areas of global and public health. These groups enable like-minded individuals to come together, explore different angles of the debates, develop expertise and launch strategic campaigns. Email policies@medsin.org to get involved.
Our current national working groups cover:
- * Maternal and Child Health
- * Mental Health
- * The NHS
- * Non communicable diseases
- * Economics and health
- * Beyond 2015
- * Ethical procurement in the NHS
- * Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights
We also have dedicated policy and advocacy group whose role is to build the capacity for Medsin's advocacy and to facilitate those within the network with the relevant expertise to take their ideas and knowledge forwards to larger policy forums ranging from parliament to the world health organisation, other NGOs and beyond. Click here to find out more about this group.
International Groups
We participate in student groups at an international level. A maternal health group was created through the IFMSA. The group is working internationally with the Partnership on Maternal and Child Health (PMNCH) at the WHO to develop strategies in which medical students can assist in improving achievements towards millenium development goal 5: improve maternal health.
Activities including Campaigns
- Pharmaware campaign for ethical interactions between Pharmaceutical Companies and Health Professionals
- Stop AIDS campaigns for equal access to medication
- Healthy Planet campaign for a healthier, greener planet
- Universities Allied for Essential Medicines
External Campaigns


