GPs march to Westminster mass rally to stop government’s NHS Bill

GPs from London’s East End who were the first to call on David Cameron to scrap the Health & Social Care Bill are joining doctors and NHS campaigners for tonight’s mass rally at Westminster.

They are taking part in a protest march setting off shortly from the BMA’s headquarters at Tavistock Square to the 6pm rally at Westminster Central Hall.

Tower Hamlets GPs Forum is also running a campaign with postcards opposing the Bill being sent to practices to distribute to patients. It has sent out 10,000 so far.

The first GP taking a stand against the Bill was Dr Sam Everington, a government health advisor and key player in Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group. His letter to David Cameron was followed by others from GPs across the country.

Bethnal Green & Bow MP Rushanara Ali said: “The Government needs to think again when even GPs in Cameron’s own clinical commissioning groups are concerned about chaos, confusion and damage the changes will cause to the NHS and the risks they pose to patients.”

Tower Hamlets Labour councillors staged an ‘advance guard’ rally last Saturday in Poplar for support for today’s mass protest. They ran campaign stalls at street markets gathering hundreds of signatures calling for the Bill now going through Parliament to be dropped.