‘Occupy the NHS’

What would it look like?

Why might it arise?

What could the NHS do?

Paul HodgkinFounder of Patient Opinion

@paulhodgkin

Creative Commons Credit and adapt@paulhodgkin

OCCUPY THE NHS NOW!

Imagine….

Monday: Jeremy Hunt announces that Circle has been successful in its bid to take over George Eliot Trust

Tuesday: A video of 3 doctors laughing about a death goes viral. On 4th day of uproar they are suspended by the GMC

Wednesday: CQC announces that another 8 trusts are being investigated for gaming cancer waiting times

Thursday: Poole Hospital Trust announces it is shutting

Friday: beginsOCCUPY THE NHS NOW!

• Never disrupt clinical care or frighten other patients• Get staff on our side – they are as stressed as you• The NHS Constitution says ‘this is our NHS’ so use the hospital canteen, toilets. Go inside if you are getting cold• Go home when you’re tired, there will always be others to take your place • Courteously hold management to account

• Tweet what they say using #ONNOW! • Upload your interactions with them to www.you.tube.onnow• Keep in touch nationally at www.OccupytheNHS.org

How to Occupy the NHS – house ruleswww.OccupytheNHSNow.org

OCCUPY THE NHS NOW!

How to justify occupying the NHSwww.OccupytheNHSNow.org

OCCUPY THE NHS NOW!

Useful quotes when challenged about why you are occupying the NHS

• The NHS Constitution says ‘the NHS belongs to all of us’ and as an owner and guardian I’m here to have my say about what is going on.

• Tim Kelsey and the NHS England Board have asked the public to hold them to account and have set up a Civil Society Assembly to do this. This is just your local chapter of civil society attempting to do just what the Board asked us to do. The question is not ‘Why are we here?’ but ‘Where are they?’

• How do your react to the threats and opportunities of something like Occupy the NHS?

• What should leaders be doing now to create the social capital across their communities needed to make Occupy the NHS into an opportunity?

Exam question for Trust CEOs

OCCUPY THE NHS NOW!

Why is it happening now?

OCCUPY THE NHS NOW!

Castells studied a range of OccupyMovements plus the Arab Spring and Los Indignados in Spain.

These movements arise:• When literate populations • Use social media to link around

a movement• That combines a physical space (Tahir Square, Wall St) where

face to face discussion and confrontation occur

• With mass social media participation

• They often appear to fail but frequently change the terms of debate

Power completely centralised

TyrannyNorth Korea

Power completelydiffused

Failed stateSomalia

Political and social stability,economic vitality

Space for democratic

action

From: ‘The End of Power: Why Being In Charge Isn't What It Used to Be’ Moises Naim 2013

The nature of power is changing

Power completely centralised

TyrannyNorth Korea

Political and social stability,economic vitality

Space for democratic

action

300 years of democratic and civil inventions• Universal suffrage, rule of law, due process• Free press• Literate, educated population

Power completelydiffused

Failed stateSomalia

Space for democratic

action

20 years of• Universal information, GPS, • Democratised voice: blogs, Twitter, FB• Transparency/end of privacy• Informed, empowered populace• Bewildered bureaucracies

?

Marx said that liberating the means of production would require a revolution.

Turns out Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were very happy to sell use the (digital) means of production for £500.

So now we are having the revolution.• Universal information• Democratised voice• Easy to find ‘people like me’• Easy to organise

Creative Commons Credit and adapt@paulhodgkin

How should the NHS respond?

• Welcome the protestors and let them use toilets, restaurants etc.

• Encourage staff to talk to them

• Get the best staff to take them on guided tours of the hospital and up load videos of this to YouTube

• Get the CEO to have lunch with them every day and listen

• Don’t expect to control the outcome but recognise that Occupiers want to help. They are there because the love the NHS

Paul HodgkinContact via Twitter

Twitter: @paulhodgkin