Newsletter 168
Contents
Action of the Week
Submit an MSC Motion!
Submit a motion to the BMA's Medical Student Conference via Medsin along the lines of international health or anything to do with a Medsin project or campaign.
The deadline is Friday 11th January, e-mail it to the committee. There are tips for writing motions on the website, but any general ideas would be welcomed too.
National News and Events
Anything Else
Of the Month
Website and News
The website is for YOUR events being held by YOUR branches, projects and campaigns. It is really, really easy to submit events and news, so please do, and let everyone know what wonderful things you are up to! Join in Medsin discussions at http://www.medsin.org/discuss
National News and Events
VPE Appointment
Congratulations to Simon Lex, Medsin's new Vice President for Externals.
Simon's main responsibility is to secure funding for the Medsin network with the help of Rafi, the treasurer. Simon also has other responsibilities which include working with James, publicity director, to ensure that Medsin has a good external image, working with Gemma to ensure that Medsin is well represented and supporting the National Committee in ensuring that they know all about Charity status and law. Simon works with Gemma and the other Vice-Presidents to ensure the smooth running of National Medsin and the National Committee. Get in touch with Simon or have a look at the fundraising page if you need any help or advice with fundraising.
Campaign Against Genocide
Over the last 3 months Newcastle University Union has been running a Campaign Against Genocide. Want to get involved?
But first of all what is genocide? According to the Oxford English Dictionary it is the deliberate and systematic extermination of an ethnic or national group.
This campaign aims to raise awareness of the situations in countries of past and present genocide such as Darfur, Democratic Republic Congo, Burma, and Rwanda. By organising a programme of awareness and action events to engage and educate students, the campaign hopes to promote action amongst the student body against the occurance of Genocide.
But we need your help. If you are interested in helping set up the Campaign Against Genocide email Hayley.
UAEM Recruitment
Do you want to be involved in altering medical research policies to being more favour to global public health?
Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) campaigns for universities to increase the affordability and availability of drugs developed by their contribution and promotes research on neglected diseases (Malaria, Chagas disease, lymphatic filariasis etc.) given the current lack of therapies for these diseases.
As a Medsin priority campaign this year, UAEM is looking to establish itself more in the UK and is calling out for people to be involved both locally and nationally.
Locally, students can set up a UAEM branch in their university to lobby their institution and its research practices. Contact UAEM if you are interested.
Nationally, a working group of coordinators is needed to provide support to individual branches as well as coordinating various projects at a higher level. Please contact us for more information about application to the working group. We stress that experience is not a pre-requisite and we encourage applications from anyone with a keen interest, including non-medics!
Finally, remember to sign the Philadelphia Consensus Statement (our global petition, can be found here) if you believe in our cause.
Thank you for your continuing support,
Universities Allied for Essential Medicines-UK (UAEM-UK) Our Labs. Our Drugs. Our responsibility.
Anything Else?
The following aren't officially affilliated with Medsin, but we thought you might be interested.
NGO Forum National Conference
- FREE Conference on Wednesday 30th January in London, not aimed at students, but at NGOs.
The NGO Forum is holding a national multi-sectoral conference to bring together leading figures from public health to discuss and debate the issues around social determinants of health. This will be your opportunity to learn more about the social factors which can lead to ill health and inequalities. Hear from experts in the UK and internationally about the underlying causes that can lead to health problems. The determinants include unemployment, unsafe workplaces, urban slums, globalization and lack of access to health systems.
You will get an opportunity to network with colleagues from the voluntary sector, health, education, local authorities and other areas and learn from each other about what you can do to help improve the inequalities in England.
For more information, click here
Of The Month
Defend Primary Healthcare - A GHAP Campaign
GhAP is campaigning to protect access to primary health care by vulnerable migrants -including undocumented migrants, failed asylum seekers and trafficked people.
In 2004 the Department of Health introduced legislation to the effect that groups considered not ‘lawfully resident’ in the UK were no longer entitled to free hospital care or treatment, including anti-retroviral drugs used to treat HIV.
The Home Office and Department of Health are currently undertaking a joint review of proposals to extend these charging rules to primary care, leaving up to 400,000 of the most vulnerable residents of the UK, many of whom may be destitute, with no access to healthcare whatsoever. The review is expected to report early in the New Year and will be followed by a consultation period. Consequently, it is vital that we continue to lobby over the coming weeks to prevent removal of the right of these individuals to freely access GP and other primary care services. We also want to raise awareness so as to encourage organisations to submit evidence to the new consultation.
The declared intention of the proposal is to reduce abuse of the NHS by “health tourists”. However, there is no evidence to support the suggestion that the individuals concerned come to the UK with the sole purpose of accessing free NHS treatment.
Human rights issues and workability notwithstanding, these changes will impact negatively on public health by reducing uptake of immunisations and delaying detection of communicable diseases. In addition, they do not make economic sense given the cost effectiveness of GP consultations, at approximately £20 per consultation. Emergency services will become overloaded, and there will be an unnecessary administrative burden. It remains unclear who will be responsible for deciding whether patients require ‘immediate and necessary care’, under S1614, for which they are not obliged to pay upfront.
To use denial of healthcare as a lever for immigration is barbaric. GhAP believes that health professionals should not be responsible for policing access to care, especially as evidence has shown that doing so deters people from accessing healthcare services. It is perverse that the British Government advocates for 'Universal access to HIV treatment for all', when they do not provide this access in their own country.
More information can be found in the excellent Medact briefing
What’s new for the campaign?
Since the National Medsin Conference in Dundee, the number of people involved in the campaign has grown tremendously and we now have a Facebook group of over 400. We still want to hear more about involvement at branch level. Early Day Motion 220 has been created by Neil Gerrard MP, which is a step towards a parliamentary debate - so far 48 MPs have signed. A report published in December by the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health ‘Saving Mothers’ Lives’ reported that Black African women, including asylum seekers and newly arrived refugees, have a mortality rate nearly six times higher than White women. This is extremely concerning, as the proposed regulations threaten to prevent access to maternity care, which would exacerbate this existing gross inequality.
On December 11th, a public meeting was held in Parliament. Susan Wright, Director of Medecin du Monde and Dr Angela Burnett, GP, Medact were among the speakers. The meeting was certainly a success with over 100 present. However, after preaching somewhat to the converted, we should aim our lobbying more strongly towards PCTs, MPs and sympathetic groups, and encourage them to submit to the consultation. Campaign exposure in National newspapers including the Guardian Articles here and here.
What can you do?
1) Keep informed by joining the campaign mailing list: http://groups.google.com/group/ghap-asylum?hl=en
2) Help collect signatures on a statement of support, which can be found at www.ipetitions.com/petition/access. We need as many students, doctors and other health professionals, friends, family etc to add their names.
3) Write to your MP to raise awareness and ask them to sign EMD 220. If we get over 100 signatures, there’s a much greater chance of a parliament hearing.
4) Help with collecting submissions to the original 2004 consultation to gather evidence in support of the campaign.
5) We need more people to raise awareness at university/branch level by holding events (we can help you with a speaker), contacting local organisations and charities or by writing for student magazines and newspapers.
6) We are planning a public protest for January when the review is expected to report - keep checking the website to stay updated and get involved, suggestions welcome!
7) We are also looking for more media exposure in specific journals of Public Health/A&E/Obs & Gynae –volunteers welcome! Please drop us an email at access@medsin.org if you would like more information.
All details and other ways you can get involved can be found here
Last updated on Tuesday 08 January 2008 at 19:33.
