The following stories were selected from those sent as daily alerts under the search term ‘NHS’, and ‘Keep Our NHS Public’ from the Google alerts service. Please send any comments to Alan: [email protected]
21 January
Pfizer boss appointed as NED to King’s College Hospital
Obvious conflicts of interest, seemingly ignored. OurNHS: https://www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/diarmaid-mcdonald/big-pharma-now-helping-to-run-kings-college-hospital
[6 more stories]
NHS funding falling behind European neighbours’ average
King’s Fund study. Guardian:
22 January
Letter pointing out flawed privatization argument (local)
Plymouth Herald: a good example of how a short letter can reach the local press
And another one (local)
Western Morning News (West country):
US health giant makes fortune from NHS but pays hardly any UK tax
A particularly stark example of the Starbucks tax phenomenon, with NHS connections. Independent:
26 January
NHS Bill overview focusing on Caroline Lucas
Call for inquiry into Addenbrooke’s contract
MPs asking why Monitor allowed contract to go ahead
STOP PRESS: There’s a Better Way…
You can now get alerts sent about health stories yourself. This is much better than a regular, ‘supplied’ service because you can choose what key words trigger the alerts: “Keep Our NHS Pubic”, “NHS”, “health” – your choice. Then you can adjust the settings to improve the coverage. This has the added advantage that local stories to you can be searched for, as well as national. Alerts can be set up to send you an e-mail as a story breaks, or summarise them under headings you decide once a day.
This is done through Google news and Google alerts: free services anyone can set up. To find out how to do this, go to the Steering Group, News & Events section and look for the “starter set of instructions”.
… and please don’t forget, your smartphone or tablet will have free apps that look for and filter news, too: try configuring those for health stories, or the NHS, as well.
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