I too had a detailed reply from my MP David Lidington and a copy letter from Jeremy Hunt that has been received by BLF. As you say there is no hope at present we have missed the boat. So disappointing as it is difinitely saying whatever we do now is to have no effect.
Perhaps behind closed doors does not work very well? Too late now anyway.
Hi all. Please don't give up on the campaign just yet - it is not too late!
The decision to omit respiratory disease from the SCNs was announced at the end of the July without prior notice. Therefore, the 'proposal was finalised' (as Joan Bloggs' MP put it) before any of us even started writing to our MPs. Indeed, until they announced it, we didn't know there was anything to write to our MPs about!
However, a decision having been made in the past does not rule out that same decision being changed at a later date as a result of a campaign by those affected - I'm sure we can all think of cases in which that has happened recently! The campaign may not have succeeded yet, but that does not mean it has failed. Some of your MPs may have said it is too late. However, MPs are elected to make laws in the best interest of their consituents, so that needn't be true. We know that other MPs are not accepting that it is too late to help - visit the website below to see an example of an MP who is challenging the decision as a result of letters from Breathe Easy members and BLF supporters.
So please don't think it is all too late - we at the BLF aren't going to give up on this, and we hope none of you would choose to either.
In the meantime, if you received a letter from your MP saying that the decision can't be change, and you feel comfortable sharing that response with us, that could help us get a greater understanding of what those MPs believe the barriers are, and could help us help them see a way round those barriers. Please email them to press@blf.org.uk if you feel comfortable sharing them.
I've been rooting around my papers to find the reply from our MP Julian Brazier from deep within the one-party state of Kent - but no luck so far. It was short and pretty bland - far as we can remember here he characterised the SCN situation as a done deal like JoanBloggs' MP said, but he did say he would speak to Jeremy Hunt about it. This is pretty tokenistic though.
Unfortunately most MPs understand very little about how healthcare commissioning has changed and that the control is no longer with the Department of Health, but with the NHS commissioning board, which is essentially an arms-length organisation. So MPs have very little clout now though good for John Healey to give it a go.
Hard not give up hope but the BLF is right, we should keep going.
As Joan wrote the staff are being employed and trained for the other groups the time table is against us this year think better luck for 2014 we are that far behind where the the groups that have it organised are. Keep writing but not expect anything this time the ship has sailed without us
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