Medact

Homes for Health National Organising Group meeting: November
2025-11-06 18:00 - 20:00 (Europe/London)
The ‘Homes for Health’ campaign unites the health community across the UK with a shared vision to reclaim our homes for people and the planet.

The National Organising Group meets monthly online to coordinate the collective work of the Homes for Health Network. Bringing together our two policy areas (Economic Justice and Climate) with representatives from local groups across the country.

We start at 6pm – 6.30pm for new folks with an onboarding call then move into our rolling agenda from 6.30pm when our regular members join.

This is a coordinating group for members involved in the network – If you would like to get involved you can contact Cal (calumbarnes@medact.org), Jordi (jordilopezbotey@medact.org), or Jack (jackdoyle@medact.org).

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in touch, you can also sign up to the Homes for Health mailing list for updates on our work.

The meeting is online via Zoom. Please get in touch for a link.

Palestine, Health and the Limits of Humanitarianism
2025-11-11 19:00 - 20:30
What does it mean to be a health worker in the face of genocide?

Join us for a powerful political education webinar on Palestine and the politics of humanitarianism, where we’ll explore the role of health workers in confronting the ongoing genocide in Gaza – and the complicity of the British state in that violence.

Through this conversation, we’ll cut through the depoliticised narratives often used to obscure the reality of Israel’s settler-colonial project, and instead confront the deliberate destruction of Gaza’s health system, the use of starvation as a weapon of war, and the urgent need for international solidarity.

For this online event, we’ll hear from health workers and organisers committed to naming the violence, challenging the limits of humanitarianism and standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their right to liberation.

Speakers:

Layth Hanbali, community health researcher

Ghassan Abu-Sittah, trauma and reconstructive surgeon

Hannah Caller, community paediatrician

James Smith, emergency physician

Host: Rhiannon Mihranian Osborne, foundation doctor and member of Health Workers for a Free Palestine

This event is especially valuable for health workers, but it’s open to everyone – so please share widely!This is part of Medact’s Learning for Action series that aims to equip us with the knowledge and skills we need to win a more just world.

Nuclear Weapons Group – November Meeting
2025-11-26 18:00 - 19:30
Medact’s Nuclear Weapons Group represents the longest standing aspect of Medact’s work towards nuclear abolition, and to address war, armed violence and conflict as global threats to health.

We meet to provide an update on our ongoing campaigning work, and discuss the current global political landscape as related to nuclear weapons, militarisation and disarmament. Register below to receive the meeting link! For more info or with questions, email Sarah: sarahlasoye@medact.org

Abolitionist Approaches to Health Group – December Meeting
2025-12-03 18:00 - 19:30
The Abolitionist Approaches to Health Group (originally named the ‘Securitisation of Health Group’) is a space for health workers and campaigners to collectively challenge policing, criminalisation and securitisation practices within and beyond sites of healthcare.The groups’ current priority campaign is calling for the repeal of Prevent in the NHS, the adoption of evidence-based public health policies, and the redressal of harms caused by Prevent. We organise as three working groups: Workshops & Public Engagement, Policy & Lobbying, FOIs and Research.New members are always welcome! If you have any questions or concerns about attending, please email our Campaign Lead Sarah Lasoye at sarahlasoye@medact.org.

Homes for Health National Organising Group meeting: December
2025-12-04 18:00 - 20:00
The ‘Homes for Health’ campaign unites the health community across the UK with a shared vision to reclaim our homes for people and the planet.

The National Organising Group meets monthly online to coordinate the collective work of the Homes for Health Network. Bringing together our two policy areas (Economic Justice and Climate) with representatives from local groups across the country.

We start at 6pm – 6.30pm for new folks with an onboarding call then move into our rolling agenda from 6.30pm when our regular members join.

This is a coordinating group for members involved in the network – If you would like to get involved you can contact Cal (calumbarnes@medact.org), Jordi (jordilopezbotey@medact.org), or Jack (jackdoyle@medact.org).

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in touch, you can also sign up to the Homes for Health mailing list for updates on our work.

The meeting is online via Google Meet. Please get in touch for a link.

Nuclear Weapons Group – December Meeting
2025-12-17 18:00 - 19:30

No Palantir in the NHS - South Yorkshire public meeting
2026-01-26 18:30 - 20:30 | Quaker Meeting House 10 St James Street, Sheffield, S1 2EW
Medact Sheffield are hosting a public meeting bringing together stakeholders, concerned residents, and health workers across South Yorkshire, to discuss how we can take collective action to keep Palantir out of our NHS.

Palantir is a US-based tech firm specialising in data. The use of their software extends from military targeting in Palestine, leading to them being named by the UN as a corporate actor in the genocide in Gaza, to racist predictive policing tactics and many other ethically intolerable practices.

Since 2021, NHS England and the UK Government have been entangled in deals with Palantir lacking any transparency. In 2023, they were awarded a contract for the national rollout of the ‘Federated Data Platform’ (FDP), a platform that looks to process patient data between different sectors of healthcare. Many of the South Yorkshire NHS healthcare providers are in the process of adopting the FDP.

We do not believe that the NHS should be doing deals with the likes of Palantir. They cannot be trusted, they are enabling a genocide, deals like this will only deepen societal inequalities, and it will further entrench and continue the insidious privatisation of our NHS.

It is possible to stop the rollout of the FDP! Health trusts and boards have the power to say no to the FDP and opt for an alternative, as we are already seeing in other areas of the UK. We believe this is possible in South Yorkshire, but only with you and collective action! Let’s send a strong message to NHS England and the UK Government that Palantir and companies like it are not welcome in our NHS.

Join us to find out more about the campaign and how we can strategically take action within South Yorkshire to say NO PALANTIR IN THE NHS.Doors open at 6:30pm with food provided, and the event will begin at 7:00pm. It’s a hybrid event, taking place in person at the Quaker Meeting House and online via Zoom.If you can’t make this public meeting but want to find out more, contact us on sheffield@medact.org or check out the toolkit here https://www.medact.org/2024/resources/toolkits/no-palantir-in-the-nhs-campaign-toolkit/

Abolitionist Approaches to Health Group – January Meeting
2026-01-29 18:00 - 19:30

Nuclear Weapons Group – February Meeting
2026-02-04 18:00 - 19:30
Content is protected.

Abolitionist Approaches to Health Group - Gathering + Strategy Day
2026-02-14 10:00 - 17:00 | Pelican House, 144 Cambridge Heath Road, London, London, E1 5QJ, United Kingdom
Members of the Abolitionist Approaches to Health Group are gathering together on Saturday 14th February at Medact Office (Pelican House) for a day of collective visioning, strategy, and action planning for 2026!

We’ll spend time deepening connections, developing shared values, and building strategic actions for our campaigning work – resisting policing, criminalisation and securitisation within and beyond sites of healthcare. Some elements of the day will be facilitated as hybrid sessions, but the majority will be in-person.

If you’ve attended a meeting of the group in the past, or already had a 121 with me, you’re welcome to come along! Just email me to confirm your place (sarahlasoye@medact.org). We will aim to cover travel for all attendees, and lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Unlearning Medical Education
2026-02-25 19:00 - 20:30
This member-run workshop brings health workers together for a practical discussion about how – and why – we can start to ‘unlearn’ oppressive systems underpinning our own medical educations. We’ll consider who’s harmed and uplifted by medical pedagogy, how our education shows up in our practices today, and start working collectively towards alternative ways of learning towards health justice. This session will feature group discussions and a critical conversation between Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan and Dr Jo Hartland about their personal, intellectual, and professional experiences of medical learning.

This workshop is hosted by Medact’s Political Education Working Group. Spaces are limited to encourage group discussion – reserve your spot ASAP!

Dr Jo Hartland (they/them) is an Associate Professor of Health Justice Education and School Deputy Education Director at Bristol Medical School. Drawing on their previous work as Doctor in the NHS, their teaching on health justice within medicine is co-produced in partnership with marginalised communities, bringing the voices of those historically excluded from healthcare into curriculum development. Nationally they are the Co-Chair for the Executive Board of the Medical Schools Council (MSC) Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Alliance. They are also an award-winning queer health activist, and in their own time led the development of the GLADD UK Medical Schools Charter on So-Called LGBTQ+ Conversion Therapy which led to their attendance at parliament briefing MPs on these issues. In recognition of their work they were awarded a 2024 National Teaching Fellowship Award and the 2023 Attitude Pride Award. Their research, writing and public speaking explores themes of justice and power in medical education. They hope to use their experience and platform as a disabled and queer educator to role model authentic and meaningful work in healthcare education leadership, inspiring students and colleagues to join in with marginalised communities fighting for social justice.

Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan (she/her) is a doctor, researcher and writer. She qualified in 2004 and is an NHS Consultant in HIV Medicine at Barts Health NHS Trust and Deputy Director of the SHARE Collaborative for Health Equity, Queen Mary University of London. Her clinical work, research and advocacy focus on improving health equity. Rageshri has held numerous national charity and policy positions and regularly works with patient organisations. She currently chairs the British HIV Association EEDI Group and steering group of 4M Mentor Mothers CIC. Rageshri is the author of Unheard: The Medical Practice of Silencing (Trapeze, 2024) longlisted for the Bread and Roses Prize for Radical Non-Fiction. She is an inaugural Wellcome Collection x Spread the Word non-fiction writer awardee (2022).

Medact London group meeting: February
2026-02-26 18:30 - 20:30 | Medact, Pelican House, 144 Cambridge Heath Road, London, E1 5QJ
Across London, health workers are organising and campaigning for better access to secure, quality, affordable and sustainable housing. This includes working alongside local groups to support local campaigns, as well as demanding policy change on a national level. All are welcome.

If you would like to get involved you can contact Jordi (jordilopezbotey@medact.org), Cal (calumbarnes@medact.org) or Jack (jackdoyle@medact.org)

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in touch, you can also sign up to the Medact London email list using the box below for updates on our work.

The meeting is hybrid, on Google Meets and in-person at our office in Bethnal Green. Please let us know if you’re planning on coming along:

Medact, Room 104, Pelican House144 Cambridge Heath RdLondon, E1 5QJ

Build the Health Movement for Housing Justice
2026-03-02 18:30 - 19:45
Skyrocketing housing costs are undermining people’s ability to live stable, healthy lives. Unaffordable rents force people out of their communities, entrench poverty, worsen health inequalities, and push thousands of families into homelessness each year.

This crisis is not inevitable. Before the 1980s, governments took responsibility for keeping rents affordable and invested at scale in secure, high-quality council housing. These policies provided stability for millions and helped build strong, resilient communities.

We also know that change is possible today. Recent reforms — including the abolition of Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions — were secured through sustained campaigning and show the impact of collective action. But the core issue at the heart of the housing crisis remains unaddressed: affordability.

That’s why a broad coalition of housing groups – including Homes for All, London Renters Union, Homes for Us Alliance, and Greater Manchester Tenants Union — have come together to call for a National Housing Demonstration in London in Spring 2026, demanding:

Rent Controls

Public investment in a mass council house building programme

On Monday 2nd March at 6.30pm, we will be hosting a call to:

Find out more about the strategy of the Homes for Us Alliance

Get involved in mobilising the health community as part of a growing national network

Join the communications group shaping messaging and media interventions

Help ensure health justice remains at the heart of the housing movement

Abolitionist Approaches to Health Group – March Meeting
2026-03-04 18:00 - 19:30

Nuclear Weapons Group – March Meeting
2026-03-05 18:00 - 19:30

Build the Health Movement for Housing Justice
2026-03-12 18:30 - 19:45
Skyrocketing housing costs are undermining people’s ability to live stable, healthy lives. Unaffordable rents force people out of their communities, entrench poverty, worsen health inequalities, and push thousands of families into homelessness each year.

This crisis is not inevitable. Before the 1980s, governments took responsibility for keeping rents affordable and invested at scale in secure, high-quality council housing. These policies provided stability for millions and helped build strong, resilient communities.

We also know that change is possible today. Recent reforms — including the abolition of Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions — were secured through sustained campaigning and show the impact of collective action. But the core issue at the heart of the housing crisis remains unaddressed: affordability.

That’s why a broad coalition of housing groups – including Homes for All, London Renters Union, Homes for Us Alliance, and Greater Manchester Tenants Union — have come together to call for a National Housing Demonstration in London in Spring 2026, demanding:

Rent Controls

Public investment in a mass council house building programme

On Thursday 12th March at 6.30pm, we will be hosting a call to:

Find out more about the strategy of the Homes for Us Alliance

Get involved in mobilising the health community as part of a growing national network

Join the communications group shaping messaging and media interventions

Help ensure health justice remains at the heart of the housing movement

Abolitionist Approaches to Health Group – April Meeting
2026-04-01 18:00 - 19:30

Nuclear Weapons Group – April Meeting
2026-04-02 18:00 - 19:30

Nuclear Weapons Group – May Meeting
2026-05-05 18:00 - 19:30

Abolitionist Approaches to Health Group – May Meeting
2026-05-07 18:00 - 19:30

Nuclear Weapons Group – June Meeting
2026-06-02 18:00 - 19:30

Abolitionist Approaches to Health Group – June Meeting
2026-06-03 18:00 - 19:30

Nuclear Weapons Group – July Meeting
2026-07-02 18:00 - 19:30

Abolitionist Approaches to Health Group – July Meeting
2026-07-07 18:00 - 19:30

Nuclear Weapons Group – August Meeting
2026-08-11 18:00 - 19:30

Abolitionist Approaches to Health Group – August Meeting
2026-08-13 18:00 - 19:30

Nuclear Weapons Group – September Meeting
2026-09-10 18:00 - 19:30

Abolitionist Approaches to Health Group – September Meeting
2026-09-16 18:00 - 19:30

Nuclear Weapons Group – October Meeting
2026-10-13 18:00 - 19:30

Abolitionist Approaches to Health Group – October Meeting
2026-10-15 18:00 - 19:30
