Combating the Hostile Environment in Healthcare
2022-02-23 18:30 - 20:00 (Europe/London) | Zoom
Patients not Passports Hackney and Hackney Migrant Centre are calling an urgent public meeting to address the brutal escalation of racist, discriminatory and anti migrant policies that the Nationality and Borders Bill represents, and to raise awareness of how the hostile environment currently affects access to NHS healthcare.
If you:

Are alarmed at the rate in which racist policies and practices are gaining pace in the UK,
would like to learn more about how the hostile environment affects NHS healthcare and what you can do to combat it
have lived experience of the hostile environment and would like to raise your voice to spread awareness and fight back
have been working or campaigning around any aspect of hostile environment and would like to connect with others who are doing so
Are a curious and compassionate person who would like to learn more

Then we would love to see you and hear what you have to say!
Speakers include:
Christine Benson, Immigration and Asylum Legal Adviser at Maternity Action on the impact of healthcare charging,
Pierre Makhlouf, Legal Director of Bail for Immigration Detainees on the provisions and impact of the Nationality and Borders Bill,
Aliya Yule, Migrant Organiser for Access to Healthcare at Migrants Organise,
Please register via Eventbrite and a zoom link will be sent closer to the time!

Sounds of Solidarity Fundraiser
2022-03-01 19:30 - 22:30
A fundraiser organised by grassroots activists, Sounds of Solidarity brings together new music and passionate speakers to East London to fundraise for Migrants Organise, Atlantic Pacific and Channel Rescue.

Hosted by Ben Smoke, the night will start with inspiring speakers and soulful tracks to bring you into the week, with a relaxed lounge area upstairs for networking. Later on we’ll turn up the tempo for those of you keen for a mid week dance!
Featuring:

Hassan Akkad, bestselling author of Hope not Fear, photographer, filmmaker, refugee rights activist and NHS frontline hero,
Nadia Whittome, MP for Nottingham,
Seán Binder, Free Humanitarians campaigner, law student, search & rescuer currently on trial as part of the criminalisation of solidarity across Europe,
Byulah, South-East London soulful singer, multi-instrumentalist & writer,
SCORS, ‘subsonic slinky jangle jazz’, or ’Tubular Lounge Rock’,
Shivum Sharma, Indian-Irish singer, songwriter, producer and DJ from South London,

& more TBA!

Channel Rescue is a grassroots organisation holding authorities to account in their duty to uphold the human rights of those crossing the channel, advocating for safe passage and progressive legislation around refugees and migrants making journeys across. The organisation documents landings, acts as legal observers, and provides immediate support to those making the crossing and recently arrived people.

Migrants Organise are a grassroots organising platform organising for dignity and justice for all migrants and refugees.

Atlantic Pacific are an international rescue boat project providing lifeboats where there are none.

Barts Health NHS Workers Against Outsourcing Rally
2022-03-02 11:00 - 12:00
Show your support for Unite London & Eastern Serco workers at Barts Health NHS Trust by joining them at this demo at the Royal London Hospital, and add your voice to the call demanding Barts Trust to end inequality, pay disparity & exploitation by bringing the workers back in house!
Barts Trust has maintained a two-tier system of racialised exploitation for too long, treating the mostly BAME outsourced workforce as second class workers, denying them of basic employment rights that all other NHS employees have. It’s time to end outsourcing for good.

Migrant Solidarity Group: March Meeting
2022-03-03 18:30 - 20:00 | Medact Office, The Brick Yard, 28 Charles Square, London, N1 6HT, United Kingdom
Our Migrant Solidarity Group will be meeting on Thursday 3rd March from 6:30pm – 8:00pm.
This will be a hybrid meeting. You can attend in person at the Medact offices in East London. Alternatively you can attend via Zoom!
For Zoom details or any other information, email office@medact.org or migrantsolidarity@medact.org.

Economic Justice & Health Group Meeting: Strategy Session #2
2022-03-07 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
Get involved with shaping our economic justice work in the year ahead – whether you’re already in the movement or new to it!
To register, or if you have any questions, get in touch with campaign and programme lead Jordi at jordilopezbotey@medact.org.
[Registration has now closed]

Health4GND Bristol Local Action Training
2022-03-08 19:00 - 20:30
Interested in getting involved in mobilising the health community in Bristol for climate justice and a transformative Green New Deal? Join us for this local action training to launch Health for a Green New Deal Bristol.
You can attend in-person at St Pauls Learning and Family Centre or online via Zoom. Please register to receive more information.
[Registration has now closed]

No To Arms Fairs - Refugees and Migrants Welcome
2022-03-15 18:00 - 19:00
Next week we are seeing a return to ‘business-as-usual’, with the UK government’s annual Security and Policing Fair taking place in Farnborough on 15-17 March.
On Tuesday 15 March at 6pm, a vigil will be held outside the Home Office in London to remember those who have lost their lives to our government’s border regime and arms trade.
Stand with us against the arms fair – join the WhatsApp Group for the Health Bloc.
The Security and Policing Fair brings together arms and surveillance companies with policing, prison and border enforcement agencies to sell their wares and share tactics with government representatives from around the world. In previous years, arms companies such as BAE Systems, Babcock and Thales exhibited to representatives of countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel.
Despite the UK government’s recent assurances that it would be easing visa requirements for certain Ukrainians fleeing war, this year’s fair will be focusing on border enforcement and surveillance technologies.
Medact members will be attending this vigil to oppose the fair, and to call for a move away from violent security measures to human security that prioritises collective health and wellbeing.
Join our WhatsApp Group to organise and stay updated about our health bloc at the vigil. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email reemabuhayyeh@medact.org.
If you can’t attend in person but would like to show your solidarity, here are some materials you can share online (via JCWI).

Medact North East Group Meeting
2022-03-16 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. 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.

Each meeting is facilitated by a different person and they welcome new members! If you want more information or the Zoom link to join, please feel free to get in touch via northeast@medact.org.

Economic Justice & Health Group Meeting: Strategy Session #3
2022-03-21 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
Get involved with shaping our economic justice and health work!
In this session we will look at our ongoing projects and what is needed next to deliver them, think about new projects and campaigns to develop and identify how to get these off the ground.
The meeting is also be a great opportunity to catch up on the recent organising work that some of our members have been involved with, and discuss future plans!
Whether you regularly attend group meetings or have not come before, you’re really welcome to join! If you have any questions, get in touch with campaign and programme lead Jordi at jordilopezbotey@medact.org.
[Registration has now closed]

Medact Leeds Group Meeting
2022-03-22 19:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
Medact Leeds meet this week to celebrate the success with their anti airport expansion campaign and decide on next steps and next directions for the group. New and old members welcome alike! If you’d like to join please email leeds@medact.org.

Songs Striving for Peace – MPD Online Concert
2022-03-24 19:30 - 21:00 | Zoom
Our friends at Musicians for Peace and Disarmament are hosting a virtual live concert on March 24th at 7:30pm.
Presented by MPD Patron Frankie Armstrong, with live solo and duo performances by Frankie, Janet Russell and Jim Woodland, Rory McLeod, Mike and Reina Reinstein. The concert will also feature community choirs brought together by Janet Russell.
The event is free or by donation following a “pay as you wish” model. All proceeds donated to the peace movement.
Find out more & register your place!

Movement Builders: How to organise a protest – Health for a Green New Deal
2022-03-28 19:00 - 20:30
The Health for a Green New Deal Movement Builders’ sessions are a space for us to come together and learn collectively. Taking place every two months, these sessions focus on particular campaign skills, discuss key topics connected to health and climate justice and organise speaker sessions or workshops with the wider movement.
Join Health for a Green New Deal for an online workshop on how to organise a protest! This will be a space to learn from each other, skillshare, troubleshoot, and provide an opportunity to begin planning actions for your campaigns. We hope you’ll leave feeling empowered and ready to go.
Whilst the framing for the workshop will focus on the Health for a Green New Deal campaign, everyone is welcome from across Medact’s campaign areas.
Join us to explore the nuts and bolts of setting up a demo as part of taking action for health and climate justice!
[Registration has now closed]

Medact Sheffield Meeting
2022-03-29 19:00 - 20:00, 2022-04-05 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 in a hybrid format – in person at the Medical School (room to be confirmed each time) and online via Zoom.
To get involved, sign up to their mailing list or email the group coordinator.

Patients not Passports New Joiners Meeting March 2022
2022-03-29 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 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.

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]

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Medact North East Meeting
2022-03-30 20:00 - 21:00

A People’s Economy: the fight for health and economic justice
2022-04-05 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
Join us for the online launch of three brand new pamphlets developed by members of the Economic Justice & Health group.
These booklets explore the key campaigning areas of secure housing, tax justice and liveable incomes, and provide an informative resource for those looking to fight against economic and health injustice.
We’ll hear from a great line-up of speakers on the issues covered by the booklets:

Guppi Bola, strategist, organiser and co-founder of Decolonising Economics and author of “Reimagining Public Health”.
Abigail Acheampong, cleaner at Royal London Hospital. UNITE representative and key leader in the campaign that ended outsourcing in England’s biggest NHS trust, and
Representatives from Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth and London Coalition Against Poverty

A decade of austerity policies and vast cuts to public finances have contributed to worsening health for people and communities that are marginalised by our current economic systems.
As members of the health community, our work is as much about caring for those in immediate need as it is about advocating for and building new societal systems in which all are able to live well and thrive.
Download the digital booklets in advance of the event here:

Questions? Contact our campaign lead Jordi.
[Registration has now closed]

Medact Brighton Social
2022-04-06 18:30 - 19:30
Medact Brighton are hosting an informal get-together for members of the health community in Brighton.
All are welcome, whether you are new to the group or have been participating for a while! The social will take place at The Well on St Georges Road, Kemptown, Brighton BN2 1EA.
Get involved with Medact Brighton by signing up to the mailing list:
Subscribe to the Medact Brighton mailing list

Economic Justice & Health Group Meeting
2022-04-11 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]

Medact Sheffield Meeting
2022-04-12 19:00 - 20:00, 2022-04-26 19:00 - 20:30 | University of Sheffield Medical School, University of Sheffield, Beech Hill Road, Broomhall, Sheffield, S10 2RX, United Kingdom
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.

Medact North East Meeting
2022-04-13 20:00 - 21:00
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.

Fore 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 Five Health Frontiers: a New Radical Blueprint' with Chris Thomas
2022-04-14 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
A transformative approach to public health and social care in the wake of Covid-19.
“The boldest blueprint for public health since Bevan”—Sonia Adesara, NHS Doctor and Campaigner
Join us as we explore the The Five Health Frontiers: a New Radical Blueprint, out now from Pluto Press.
Author Chris Thomas, IPPR health and care Research Fellow, will explain the book’s main arguments and delve into strategies for the health justice movement given the opportunities posed by the current increased focus on public health.
[Registration has now closed]

Christopher Thomas is a senior research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research, where he leads on health and care. He is co-editor of Progressive Review, a journal of ideas and politics. He regularly comments on health and care issues in print and broadcast media, and regularly writes in the Independent and the Times. Before working at IPPR, he led on public health and inequality at major charities including Macmillan Cancer Support and Cancer Research UK.

Economic Justice & Health group meeting
2022-04-25 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
If you’re interested in getting involved, register below. Questions? Get in touch with campaign and programme lead Jordi at jordilopezbotey@medact.org.

[Registration has now closed]

Bristol Group Meeting
2022-04-25 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.

Medact North East Meeting
2022-04-27 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 –

Haringey Welcome - film screening & local election hustings
2022-04-28 18:30 - 21:00
An event by Haringay Welcome at McQueens Theatre, 4 Coburg Road, London, N22 6UJ. Register here.
With local elections coming up on 5 May, there is so much we can do to encourage candidates to do more for migrants in our borough.
Join us for a evening of information, screenings and discussion, in which we will learn about some of the challenges facing migrants in Haringey and ask incumbent councillors and candidates how they mean to make sure Haringey becomes a more welcoming Borough for all, including migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
6:30PM: Welcome
7:00PM: Screening of NHS Borderlands, an investigative documentary from Bare Life Films, promoted by Patients Not Passports, that explores the human impact of NHS charges on migrants.
7.25PM: Presentation by Dr Rachel Benchekroun of research undertaken with mothers living across north London with insecure immigration status, exploring the barriers they have faced accessing their basic rights. She will be joined by Haringey Welcome member Champagne, currently working with Rachel, who has lived experience of insecure status.
7.40PM: Panel discussion and hustings with Q&A. Featuring:

Lucy Nabijou, Coordinator and founder of Haringey Welcome
Professor Myria Georgiou, LSE, Haringey Welcome member
Cllr Lucia das Neves, Labour, Cabinet member for Health, Social Care & Wellbeing, Co-chair Welcome Advisory Board
Cllr Josh Dixon, Deputy Leader, Haringey Liberal Democrats
Green Party candidate (tbc)
Jess Potter, Consultant in Respiratory Medicine at North Middlesex Hospital and Access to Healthcare campaigner with Docs not Cops.

We look forward to seeing you!

Economic Justice & Health New Joiners Meeting
2022-04-28 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
Want to get involved in Medact’s Economic Justice campaigns?

The best way to get up to speed with the campaign and meet other members of the EJ&H group is to come to our next New Joiners meeting.

To challenge economic and health inequalities, we need to build power and get as many people as we can involved. You don’t need to work in healthcare to participate!

In this meeting you’ll:

find out about the group,
what we understand by economic and health inequality,
ongoing projects and campaigns,
how we can fight for economic and health justice,
hear from some of the people working in our different campaign areas, and
explore the ways you can get involved.

There will be monthly new joiners meetings so check our calendar or sign up to our mailing list to receive all the updates.

We can also arrange a call if you’re unable to attend any of the meetings but keen to get involved or develop a local campaign. Just get in touch with Jordi!

Recommended actions:

Read our booklets on secure housing, liveable incomes and tax justice.
Read our ‘Health vs Wealth’ report
Learn more on this campaign area
Check out information on Medact membership

[Registration has now closed]

Medact Scotland Group Meeting
2022-04-28 19:30 - 21:00 | Zoom
What’s going on in Scotland? Please come to our online meeting to find out and to share ideas! New members are very welcome. We’ll have some exciting updates from across Medact:

Reem Abu-Hayyeh, Campaign and Policy Lead on peace and security, will give an overview of the role and mission of Medact,
Long-time member Michael Orgel will talk about the work of the Nuclear Weapons Group and Don’t Bank on the Bomb,
Claire Goughan will discuss the group’s climate work and upcoming actions, and
Sian Ashby will share info about the Glasgow’s Greener Practice group.

There will be time to talk about the in-person meeting we’re planning in the autumn to connect with other Scottish health activists and health organisations and encourage them to help progress our interconnected work. We’ll hear from Carey Lunan, GP and previously chair of the College of GPs in Scotland.
If you’re involved with another health organisation that you think should be invited in the autumn, please let us know!
[Registration has now closed]

Migrant Solidarity Group meeting
2022-05-05 18:30 - 20:00 | Medact Office, The Brick Yard, 28 Charles Square, London, N1 6HT, United Kingdom
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:
