Medact

Medact Research Network Quarterly Meeting
2022-09-07 19:00 - 20:30 (Europe/London) | Zoom
The Medact Research Network Quarterly is a space for us to come together, share our work, discuss new projects, or delve into deep discussion about research that has caught your interest. We aim to collectively develop our thought and research practices.
Our network meets ONLINE every three months, and is a great way to connect with others interested in activism-oriented research. If you’re looking for a way to get involved in new projects, the quarterly meeting is a good place to start.
At the 7 September meeting, we will:

hear from Dr Jo Dobbin, a member of the Migrant Solidarity Group, about research into contingency accommodation and charging in primary care
hear from Dr Hil Aked, Medact’s Research and Policy Manager, about the research network’s upcoming project ‘Criminalising Distress’ and how you can get involved

Interested? Register below! Feel free to get in touch with Hil if you have any questions.
[Registration has now closed]

Medact Sheffield Meeting
2022-09-06 19:00 - 20:00
Medact Sheffield are currently focusing their campaigns on Patients Not Passports and Health for a Green New Deal.

The group meets fortnightly from 7pm – 8pm in a hybrid format — in person at the Medical School (room to be confirmed each time) and online on Zoom.

Sign up to the Medact Sheffield email list below to get involved — or email sheffield@medact.org.

Medact Brighton meeting
2022-08-31 19:00 - 20:30
Building on our Health for a Green New Deal introduction session, we want to hear your thoughts on what the local issues are relating to climate health in our area, and start planning how we could campaign for positive change for people and planet.

New to Medact/H4GND? Don’t worry if you missed the last session, we’ll have a quick recap beforehand! Likewise, if this is your first meeting, please arrive by 6:45 for an introduction to Medact.

COVID safety: The venue is indoors, so we ask attendees to please take a lateral flow test before coming if you have access to them, and not to attend if you have symptoms or a positive test. If you would prefer, there is the option to join online via Zoom.

Venue: St George’s Community Centre, Kemptown, BN2 1ED. The entrance to the community centre is through a blue door in a glass extension to the left of the church itself. We’ve booked Community Room 1, first on the left at the bottom of the stairs.

Join the WhatsApp group and sign up to the Brighton mailing list for more info and future meetings:

Medact Sheffield Meeting
2022-08-25 19:00 - 20:00
Medact Sheffield are currently focusing their campaigns on Patients Not Passports and Health for a Green New Deal.

The group meets fortnightly in a hybrid format — in person at the Medical School (room to be confirmed each time) and online on Zoom.

Sign up to the Medact Sheffield email list below to get involved — or email sheffield@medact.org.

Medact Oxford relaunch event
2022-08-19 19:00 - 20:30 | Common Ground Cafe, 37-38 Little Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX1 2HF
Please join Medact Oxford for a relaunch event on Friday 19th August at the Jericho Community Centre (map).
Our intentions for the event:

Get to know each other—anyone is welcome, whether you have been following Medact and/or our group virtually or you’re totally new.
Introduce the campaigns Medact is currently involved in—including Access to Healthcare/Patients Not Passports, Securitisation of Health, Economic Justice, Health for a Green New Deal—for those that may not be familiar.

Ultimately, we would like to create a strong, local campaigning group that reflects people’s interests and passions!
We’ll open with a short refresher presentation about Medact’s work and campaigns and an open conversation about what we would like to work on as a group.
Afterwards, we’ll head to the local pub or beer garden (weather dependent) to give everyone the opportunity to socialise and network.
Please take a Covid-19 lateral flow test on the day, and we welcome people to wear masks.
Please register below and we look forward to seeing you there!
[Registration has now closed]

Economic Justice & Health group meeting
2022-08-15 19:00 - 20:30, 2022-07-04 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
The Economic Justice & Health group meet regularly on Zoom to discuss current and future campaigns, plan events, work on strategy and share knowledge. The group is open to all and welcomes new members. Questions? Email EJ&H campaigner Jordi.
[Registration has now closed]

Medact Sheffield Meeting
2022-08-09 19:00 - 20:00, 2022-07-19 19:00 - 20:00, 2022-07-05 19:00 - 20:00, 2022-06-21 19:00 - 20:00
Medact Sheffield are currently focusing their campaigns on Patients Not Passports and Health for a Green New Deal.

The group meets fortnightly on Tuesdays from 7pm – 8pm in a hybrid format — in person at the Medical School (room to be confirmed each time) and online on Zoom.

Sign up to the Medact Sheffield email list below to get involved — or email sheffield@medact.org.

Hiroshima Day 2022
2022-08-06 - 2022-08-07
Hiroshima Day is observed annually on the 6th of August on the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. The anniversary is commemorated across the world.
Donate to our Hiroshima Appeal Join our Nuclear Weapons Group
London CND Commemoration National CND commemorations

Migrant Solidarity Group meeting
2022-08-02 18:30 - 20:00
Medact’s Migrant Solidarity Group meets monthly. The group develops projects to defend access to healthcare rights for refugees and migrants, and informs civil society about existing rights and barriers to accessing healthcare. They are a friendly and welcoming group of healthcare professionals and students who invite people to join and commit as little or as much time as they feel able. They attend events which raise awareness of forced migration, from theatre, poetry evenings, debates and lectures.

Simply sign up to the MSG mailing list to receive meeting details and other updates:

Economic Justice & Health group meeting
2022-08-01 19:00 - 20:30, 2022-07-18 19:00 - 20:30

Medact Brighton: an introduction to Health for a Green New Deal
2022-07-25 19:00 - 20:30
Are you a health worker or student in Brighton wanting to take action for climate and health justice?

Medact Brighton are currently focusing on the Patients Not Passports and Health for a Green New Deal Campaigns.

Join Medact Brighton for this hybrid (in-person and online) workshop for an introduction to the Health for a Green New Deal campaign with Medact’s Climate & Health Campaign and Programme Lead, Rob Abrams.

If you are joining in person, please take a Covid-19 lateral flow test on the day and we welcome people to wear masks!

To attend, subscribe to the Brighton mailing list or email brighton@medact.org

Economic Justice & Health: Welfare & Health Workshop
2022-07-21 19:00 - 21:00 | Zoom
Healthcare workers are in a unique position to witness how contact with the welfare system can be harmful to people’s physical and mental health.

Healing Justice London’s Deaths by Welfare Project investigates deaths linked to welfare reform and the violence of state austerity. Deaths by Welfare is led by China Mills and co-created with John Pring (Disability News Service). The knowledge and leadership of disabled people fighting fatal reforms is central to this work.

The Deaths by Welfare Project and Medact are working together to better understand how healthcare workers bear witness to the harms of the welfare system; navigate complicity in a system that is often disempowering and enraging; and how they practice, or dream of practising, allyship with those with lived experience.

Register

This workshop is for you if you…

are a healthcare worker who witnesses the impact of the welfare state on people’s health

are navigating feelings of complicity with a system that doesn’t leave you many other options

want to think more about, or share existing practices of, allyship

This will be an exploratory space for sharing, discussion and collective learning, which aims to:

identify and understand the kinds of resources that healthcare workers know about and/or need to support people in their contact with the welfare system

think collectively about what allyship might, and does, look like

Please read before registering…

Everything about the project is distressing, so we’ve spent a lot of time creating processes for supporting people to engage – co-designed and informed by the expertise of people with lived experience.

However, the session will likely be triggering for different people in different ways, especially depending on how folks are positioned in relation to the welfare system, their experiences of cumulative harm, trauma, and distress.

We want to honour the legitimacy of your self-knowledge (that you know yourself best) while also understanding how the violence of the system shows up in so many ways (in our bodies, and our emotions) both every day and sometimes unexpectedly. We would like you to participate in a way that honours how you’re feeling and that prioritises care. There will be other opportunities to connect with us if now isn’t right for you. Please do what’s right for you at this time.

Please find some resources available here:

HJL aftercare menu

The GEN Grief toolkit

HJL’s events including monthly grief circle, weekly breath circle and restorative yoga

Registrations are limited to 30 people. Please only register if you are able to attend. Once capacity has been reached, you will be waitlisted and contacted if a space becomes available.

[Registration has now closed]

Patients Not Passports National Network Meeting
2022-07-12 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
Patients Not Passports National Network Meetings are for local and national campaigners.
Are you interested in PNP and keen to get involved at a local or national level? Register for our next New Joiners meeting.
If you’ve already attended a New Joiners meeting and would like to join one of our national working groups, you can do that here.
Any questions about PNP? Get in touch with our Campaigns Officer Sarah Lasoye.

Securitisation of Health group meeting
2022-07-12 19:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
**Postponed: new date TBA**
A number of policing and counter-extremism measures are embedded by the government into UK health services, at times requiring health workers to work closely with the police and other security agencies.
These measures risk undermining therapeutic relationships, confidentiality and trust in practitioners – as well as drawing health services and workers into becoming an arm of policing and counter-terror agencies.
Through research and campaigns, Medact aims to shift understandings of ‘security’, from typically “hard” measures (border enforcement, a punitive criminal justice system, counter-terror measures) and advocate for collective and human security, health and wellbeing. Read more about our work on Securitisation.
The Securitisation of Health group is for health workers interested in working on these issues through campaigning, lobbying and research. New members are welcome! If you have any questions, please email Reem Abu-Hayyeh.

Medact Brighton: An Introduction to Patients Not Passports
2022-07-11 19:00 - 20:30
Are you a health worker or student in Brighton wanting to take action for migrant and health justice?

Medact Brighton are currently focusing on the Patients Not Passports and Health for a Green New Deal Campaigns!

Join the Brighton group for an hybrid (in-person and online) workshop for an introduction to the hostile environment in the NHS, and how the health community is seeking to tackle it through the Patients Not Passports campaign.

The workshop will be facilitated by James Skinner, Medact’s Health & Human Rights Campaign and Programme Lead.

If you are joining in person, please take a Covid-19 lateral flow test on the day, and we welcome people to wear masks.

To attend, subscribe to the Brighton mailing list or email brighton@medact.org

Migrant Solidarity Group meeting
2022-07-07 18:30 - 20:00
Medact’s Migrant Solidarity Group meets monthly. The group develops projects to defend access to healthcare rights for refugees and migrants, and informs civil society about existing rights and barriers to accessing healthcare. They are a friendly and welcoming group of healthcare professionals and students who invite people to join and commit as little or as much time as they feel able. They attend events which raise awareness of forced migration, from theatre, poetry evenings, debates and lectures.

Sign up to the MSG mailing list to receive meeting details:

Medact North East Meeting
2022-07-06 20:00 - 21:00 | Zoom
Medact North East is an active local group based around Newcastle, Sunderland, Tynemouth and across the North East.

The group meets at the same time every two weeks. Each meeting is facilitated by a different person and they welcome new members! The time is used to discuss current campaigns and anything else relevant. Some past campaigns and activities include:

Working with Newcastle City Council to endorse the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Writing to the Foreign Secretary requesting that British children in Syrian refugee camps be returned to Britain.

Giving talks on planetary health at the Royal Victoria infirmary.

Contacting Newcastle City Council to find out which energy supplier they use.

For more information or to join a meeting, get in touch via northeast@medact.org. Sign up to the North East group’s mailing list –

'The Suspect' Author Talk: Mental Health, Counterterrorism, and the Surveillance State
2022-07-05 19:00 - 20:30 | Brady Arts & Community Centre, 192-196 Hanbury St, London, E1 5HU, United Kingdom
*** RESCHEDULED: from 21st June to 5th July ***
Due to industrial action on the transport network, we have moved the date of this event to Tuesday 5th July. Solidarity with the striking rail workers!
What impact has two decades’ worth of policing and counterterrorism had on the state of mind of Muslims in Britain? The Suspect draws on the author’s experiences to take the reader on a journey through British counterterrorism practices and the policing of Muslims.
Join Rizwaan Sabir and Tarek Younis for discussion on the traumatising effects of Sabir’s surveillance, arrest and detention for suspected terrorism.
Writing publicly for the first time about the impacts of these experiences, Sabir argues that these harmful outcomes are not the result of errors in government planning, but the consequences of using a counterinsurgency warfare approach to fight terrorism and police Muslims.
To resist the injustice of these policies and practices, we need to centre our lived experiences and build networks of solidarity and support.
Please register to receive a 20% discount code for The Suspect when purchasing via Pluto Press.
This is an in-person event with an option to livestream via Zoom. The venue is Brady Arts & Community Centre, 192-196 Hanbury St, London E1 5HU (map).
[Registration has now closed]
—
Dr Rizwaan Sabir is a Lecturer in Criminology at Liverpool John Moores University in the UK and author of The Suspect: Counterterrorism, Islam, and the Security State.
Dr Tarek Younis is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Middlesex University. He researches and writes on Islamophobia, racism in mental health, and the securitisation of clinical settings. He teaches on the impact of culture, religion, globalization and security policies on mental health.

Bristol Group Meeting
2022-07-04 19:00 - 20:30
Medact Bristol is one of our more recently established local groups. They are interested and engaged in local, national and international issues that affect public health. Medact Bristol is focusing its efforts on campaigns on climate, environment and sustainability, divestment, and migrant access to health care.

The Bristol group meet every two weeks on Mondays. You can join their WhatsApp group and subscribe to the mailing list for more information.

Prescription for Climate Justice: Health Action Summer/Autumn 2022
2022-07-04 - 2022-10-31
Let’s take our Climate Clinics to the next level!
Last year, health workers across the UK started running climate clinics to engage their communities and put pressure on MPs to oppose new fossil fuels and support the Green New Deal bill.
Now, we want YOU to set up a climate clinics in your community.
Get your action guide
These clinics are a valuable opportunity to speak to those most impacted by government decisions, and ensure our voices are heard in all levels of government. There is so much we can do as members of the health community to reach new people, engage them on the issue and empower them to take action.
We have put together an action guide with everything you need to know about setting up your own climate clinic. It’s up to us to demand a just transition and forge a better future for everyone.
Sign up to receive the action guide when it’s released!
[Registration has now closed]

Patients not Passports New Joiners Meeting June 2022
2022-06-30 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
Want to get involved in the Patients Not Passports campaign?

The best way to get up to speed with the campaign and get connected with work going on across the country is to come to our next online New Joiners meeting. To win, we need everyone working together to oppose NHS charging – you don’t need to work in healthcare to be involved!

In the meeting we’ll explore how NHS charging works, how we can fight back, hear from some of the groups working on the Patients Not Passports campaign, and explore the different ways you can get involved.

The meeting will be held online on Zoom, Thursday 30th June, 7:00pm to 8:30pm.

If you can’t make the next New Joiners meeting, don’t worry as you can see and register for dates for future meetings below. We can also make time for a quick phone call with you or connect you directly with your local group – get in touch by emailing sarahlasoye@medact.org.

If you have time, you could:

check out How NHS staff are fighting back against the ‘hostile environment’ for an overview of the campaign,

watch this brilliant video from DocsNotCops on NHS Charging and the fight for Universal Healthcare, or

listen to this excellent podcast Internal Borders in Britain: Still We Rise Podcast – exploring the development and use of internal borders in Britain, and their particular harms on minoritised communities.

[Registration has now closed]

Share this…

…on Facebook…on Whatsapp…on Twitter

Medact North East Group Meeting
2022-06-22 20:00 - 21:00 | Zoom
Medact North East is an active local group based around Newcastle, Sunderland, Tynemouth and across the North East.
The group meets at the same time every two weeks. Each meeting is facilitated by a different person and they welcome new members! The time is used to discuss current campaigns and anything else relevant. Some past campaigns and activities include:

Working with Newcastle City Council to endorse the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Writing to the Foreign Secretary requesting that British children in Syrian refugee camps be returned to Britain.
Giving talks on planetary health at the Royal Victoria infirmary.
Contacting Newcastle City Council to find out which energy supplier they use.

If you want more information or the Zoom link to join, please feel free to get in touch via northeast@medact.org.

Medact Bristol Meeting
2022-06-20 19:00 - 20:30

Economic Justice & Health group meeting
2022-06-20 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
The Economic Justice & Health group meet regularly on Zoom to discuss current and future campaigns, plan events, work on strategy and share knowledge. The group is open to all and welcomes new members. Questions? Email our EJ&H campaigner Jordi.
[Registration has now closed]

We Demand Better: Cost of Living march & rally
2022-06-18 10:30 - 14:00
Portland Place, London | Assemble from 11am | March departs 12pm | Rally 1pm
On Saturday 18 June, the trade union movement is mobilising in London to tell this government that we demand better. Medact will be participating as a health bloc!
We are witnessing the impact of the cost of living crisis on the lives of our most vulnerable patients and communities. We are seeing the biggest squeeze on households in decades, with millions forced to choose between heating and eating. The Spring Budget didn’t do anywhere near enough to lift the hardest hit out of financial hardship and poverty.
Ministers partied while people died. Now they do nothing while living standards plummet and P&O lays off hundreds of workers on the spot—an example of the eroding employment rights in a country where there are more people living in poverty at work than out of work.
We demand better!

A real pay rise for every worker and a real living wage for all
Respect and security for all workers: ban zero hours contracts, ban fire & rehire, decent sick pay
An end to racism at work
Tax energy profits to pay our bills
A raise to universal credit
Boost union bargaining rights

For those outside of London, use this TUC resource to find a free or low-cost coach.
Register to receive updates and more details closer to the time.
[Registration has now closed]
