Newsletter 172
Contents
Action of the Week
Sign a petition which will not only make the country healthier, but also make student living chaper! This petition calls on the government to encourage people to get their five a day by cutting taxation on healthy fruit smoothies and juices to 5%. Click here to go to the sign up page.
National News and Events
- IPPNW 18th World Congress
- WaterAid talks
- Regional Conference Dates
- South East Medsin Regional Conference
- Healthy Planet E-vote
- Represent Medsin in Croatia
- GHC Extraordinary Meeting
- Global Health Forum Lectures
- GHC 2009 Applications
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
18th World Congress of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW)
LOCATION: Delhi, India DATE: 7th to 11th March 2008. THEME: Peace, Health and Development HIGHLIGHTS:
- Pre - Congress Students' Peace Walk Peace Walk from Wagah Border to Delhi 2nd -5th March
- Deliberations:
- Nuclear Arms Race – Emerging Challenges
- Small Arms Violence and Health
- Globalization and Health
- Energy Security and Environment
For more informationa and to register, click here.
WaterAid Talks
WaterAid event: Lajana Manandhar from Nepal will be speaking at:
- University of Leeds (Roger Stevens Building) on Monday 18 February, 6.30 – 8.30pm.
- Manchester University (Stopford Building) on Tuesday 19 February, 6.30 – 8.30pm.
- Bristol University (Queens Building) on Thursday 21 February, 6.30 – 8.30pm.
- SOAS, Brunei Gallery, London on Monday 25 February, 6.30 – 8.30pm.
- University of Edinburgh, (Appleton Tower) on Tuesday 26 February, 6.30 – 8.30pm.
The WaterAid website also have a page for the event which is kept up to date.
Background information: The UN have declared 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation, WaterAid have invited Lajana Manandhar from Nepal to visit the UK and speak about what it means to live without water, toilets and basic hygiene.
Lajana is founder member and director of Lumanti Support Group for Shelter, which works in the urban areas of Kathmandu, Patan and Thimi in Nepal. Lumanti supports the End Water Poverty campaign calling for improved access to sanitation and water.
Lajana has worked in the water and sanitation sector for over 12 years. In March 2006 she represented Nepal at the World Water Forum held in Mexico City. She also contributed to the book Water Voices from Around the World.
Regional Conference Dates
For Your Diary:
South-West Regional Conference - 16th February, Bristol
London Conference - 23rd February, King's College, London
Midlands Regional Conference - 23rd February, Nottingham
Scottish Regional Conference - 1st March, Glasgow
Northern Regional Conference - 15th March, Preston
For more information see here.
South East Medsin Regional Conference
ACCESS DENIED Refugee and Asylum Seeker Access to Health Care in the UK Saturday 23rd of February, 2008, 9-5pm Harris Lecture Theatre, Guy's Campus, King's College London
Many of you might already be aware that the government is implementing proposals to withdraw free, non-urgent primary or secondary healthcare from failed asylum seekers. (Please note, people with perfectly legitimate claims to asylum are rejected by the home office on a daily basis, a failed asylum seeker is not necessarily a bogus applicant). The motivation behind this?
"To ensure that living illegally becomes ever more uncomfortable and constrained until they leave or are removed" (Home Office, Enforcing the Rules 2007)"
Come to the conference to hear the leaders in the field of the Refugee debate and Human Rights tell us who is going to have to pay the price for this proposal, what the alternatives are, and what we can do about it.
To learn more click here, where you can also buy your ticket! Tickets are £5 including lunch, or £8 including lunch and a masquerade themed social with live music in the evening...
E-mail us for more information.
I hope to see lots of you there!
Chloe
Healthy Planet E-vote
Congratulations to Healthy Planet who can now send the letter voted on by the Medsin network to the Department of Health. We managed to get quorum in the last couple of hours of the e-vote, thanks to all those who voted!
Represent Medsin in Croatia
What?
We are now calling for applicants for the 5th European Regional Meeting (EuRegMe5) of IFMSA. The theme of the event will be Organ Donation and Transplantation. 5 members of Medsin will get the opportunity to attend the meeting, to be held on the Brijuni Islands, Croatia on the 10th - 13th April 2008.
How?
To apply for a place at this meeting please fill in the application form which can be found here and send it to the national committee by the 14th February 2008.
Global Health Conference Voting Session
This is a call for bylaw changes, policy statements, motions, etc for the GHC2008 voting session. The deadline for submission is midnight on 7th March. Hits and tips on submitting something can be found here.
Global Health Forum Lectures
The Global Health Forum provides a platform for debating topical global health issues. Broadly, our topics concentrate on public health in the developing world, health within deprived communities in the developed world and issues relating to the ethics of health and healthcare. We run a weekly lecture series in which these important issues are presented by world experts and then questioned and discussed by the audience…you! This is a great opportunity to really explore things not covered in your course but which many of us are deeply interested in. Our talks are accessible to all. No baseline knowledge is needed, just an interest in the reasons underlying the massive discrepancy in public health across the world. All lectures take place at 6.30pm in the Sir Alexander Fleming building in South Kensington and there is free food!
- February 12th - What do you want to do this summer?
- February 19th - Private Public Partnerships
- March 14th - Effects of deforestation on drug sources
- March 11th - Chernobyl/Hiroshima effects and aftermath
GHC2009 bids
With the Medsin Global Health Conference 2008 nearly upon us, it's time to start thinking about whether your branch could host the GHC2009. The deadline for submission of applications is the 7th March 2008, and applicants will be voted on at the GHC08 in Oxford. All the paperwork (1 whole form!) can be found here, and for more information, please get in touch with the committee.
Anything Else?
The following aren't officially affilliated with Medsin, but we thought you might be interested.
Interested in knowing more about Conflict, Peace & Human rights?
Medical Peace Work have launched an online free course for Medical students (and anyone who is interested). MPW is an organisation dedicated to using health and medicine to promote peace. Their course covers 8 modules:
- Module 1: Understanding peace and conflict
- Module 2: Medicine and Human Rights
- Module 3: War, weapons and strategies of violent conflict
- Module 4: Structural violence and the underlying causes of violent conflict
- Module 5: Peace-Health Interventions in Armed Conflict
- Module 6: Refugee and Migration Challenges
- Module 7: Inter-personal and self-directed violence
If you use it and have any thoughts, the creators would love it hear about it. Please leave comments on the site.
Enjoy!
Opportunity to attend Global Health Short Course 2008 at Imperial!
Monday 23rd June - Friday 4th July 2008
Global Health Short Course for medical students is potentially running from Monday 23 June - Friday 4 July this year! Held by Imperial College and Medsin-Imperial, this course will consist of lectures and small group work on topics including poverty and development, equality and health economics, policy and trade, infectious diseases, maternal and child health and the impact of war and conflict. These are very interesting topics, and whilst there will be structured teaching, there will also be plenty of time for participant discussion and debate. Leading experts with years of experience from Imperial College, Medact and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have been invited to lecture.
This promises to be an exciting new course, the very first of its kind to run open to medical students! The course fee is estimated at £60 (depending on level of interest) and will include a certificate of course completion.
If you are interested in taking the course, please reply to Anenta. This is in no way binding, but will provide an idea of the level of interest.
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 Wednesday 06 February 2008 at 23:20.
