The campaigning group 38 Degrees is delivering petitions demanding that doctors prevent local NHS services from being broken up and privatised in England. Each one of the 212 local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) is receiving the petition, calling for them to commission the NHS to deliver all these services.
Letters are also being sent to doctors and local newspapers. The group says that action is urgent because the newly created CCGs are setting up their constitutions at present.
The government intends that the services delivered by the NHS in England should be tendered out piecemeal, using EU procurement rules, allowing private companies to grab small or large chunks for making profit.
Some CCGs have already rejected tendering out, for example in Hackney and Gloucestershire. In Gloucestershire a referendum revealed that 96 per cent wanted to keep the NHS intact, providing all health care.