NHS: SOME GOOD NEWS REGARDING MAKING LIFE DIFFICULT FOR THE HEALTH MINISTER

Yesterday we moved a step closer to stopping one of the worst bits of Andrew Lansley's NHS Plan.

Good news from 38 Degrees, It looks like we are on track to stop the health minister being able to wasjh his hands of legal responsibility for our health service. The Guardian reports today that the Government had to make concessions in the House of Lords, "In order to stave off an embarrassing rebellion from Lib Dem peers." There will now be futher negotiations. The final vote on this isssue will be in January at the earliest. It is "unlikely that the Lib Dem rebels will back down."

Its not over yet, nowhere near. We will need to get our independent legal experts to look very carefully at whatever the Government does next, But this is a breakthrough. And a great sign of of hope that people power can influence the House of Lords. We voted together to make it a priority to stop Andrew Lansley scrapping his "duty to provide" health services. And we worked together to decide on the tactics we use to stop this happening. Slowly but surely our people powered campaign to protect the NHS is working.

38 Degree members paid together for the independent legal advice which first set out the risks of scrapping the Secretary of State's duties. Thousands of us signed the emergency petition last month. And thousands more of us emailed Lords ans Baronesses in the past two weeks. We have taken some nasty abuse from politicians for our efforts. Andrew Landsley stood up in Parliament to accuse us of producing "propaganda." A number of Conservative MP's contacted 38 Degrees members in their area to say that we were liars. One Lib Dem Lord branded us all as a "mob." But now the Government has finally been forced to admit that we have a point.

This is a small breakthrough on a hiuge issue. There is so much more to do to protect our NHS. Over the next few weeks the NHS plan will continue the "committee stage" in the House of Lords. We will need to push for other improvements like scrapping the 2hands off clause." and reining in competition. Then we will have even bigger decisions to make. As the Lords gear up for the final votes in early 2012, we will need to vote again on what we do together next, Should we push for further changes to Landsley's plan