The National Health Action Party is fighting to save the NHS, and are fielding 12 candidates nationwide, challenging seats held by those in the Government who should be protecting the NHS, but are in fact privatising it by the back door.
This is the blog of the NHA group in South West Surrey, supporting our local candidate, Dr. Louise Irvine, in her bid to unseat the current Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, at the 2015 election.
To find out more about the NHA Party, take a look at the main website.
ABOUT DR LOUISE IRVINE
Fact File
Occupation: GP
Constituency: South West Surrey
Current MP: Jeremy Hunt, Health Secretary. Conservative majority: 16,318
Twitter: @drmarielouise and @nha_swsurrey
Email: swsurreynha@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SouthWestSurreyNHA
Speech at NHA Party Conference at 2014
Dr Louise Irvine on why she is standing for the NHA Party
About Louise
“I’ve been a GP in Lewisham in south east London for 25 years. As chair of the Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign I helped save our local hospital from closure. We organized an amazing community campaign that brought together people from all walks of life to defend our local health services. We took the government to court to challenge its decision to close Lewisham Hospital and we won – and we won again in the Court of Appeal.
As a GP I am very concerned that our beloved NHS is being run down, privatized, fragmented and underfunded. This is an issue that affects everyone in the country. If we don’t all stand up for it now, it will be destroyed. I want to use this election to raise awareness amongst people of these threats and what we can do about it. We must ensure that this government is not re-elected and that any future government commits to reversing the cuts and privatisation of the NHS, to secure its future as an excellent public service caring for us all throughout our lives.
As part of the Save Lewisham Campaign, I visited Farnham last year to highlight the damage that the Health Secretary and local MP Jeremy Hunt were doing to our hospitals and the NHS. I haven’t forgotten the warm welcome we received from many people in Farnham who were deeply concerned about how the NHS is being run down and sold off.
Now I’m standing against Jeremy Hunt and I hope the people of South West Surrey will welcome this opportunity to vote for someone who is dedicated to defending the NHS instead of privatising and cutting it.
I’ve faced Jeremy Hunt in the courts – and beaten him twice. Now I’ll face him at the ballot box. He needs to be held to account for the way in which he and his government have bulldozed democracy, changing the law to push through hospital closures when he was beaten in court and launching a massive, wasteful and damaging reorganisation of the NHS without any popular mandate. I look forward to a serious debate with the Health Secretary about the future of our NHS.”
Promoted by Louise Irvine of National Health Action Party, ICHC Offices, Station Approach, Comberton Hill, Kidderminster, Worcestershire DY10 1QX
NHA - South West Surrey Group 