We support Stephen Hawking’s legal action to save the NHS

Professor Stephen Hawking, who has become a party to a lawsuit that is seeking to stop the introduction of the first accountable care organisations (ACOs) into the NHS. Photograph: Felix Clay for The Guardian for the Guardian

We share Professor Stephen Hawking’s concern at changes being implemented to the NHS, most particularly the introduction of US-originated accountable care organisations (ACOs). These appear to be non-statutory, non-NHS bodies to run health and social services that could undermine the NHS’s fundamental principles. That the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, and NHS England are doing this without primary legislation, proper public consultation or full parliamentary scrutiny adds to our concern. We support the CrowdJustice-funded legal action – www.crowdjustice.com/case/jr4nhs-round2 – by Professor Hawking and other prominent individuals (Report, 9 December) for a judicial review to stop the ACOs until these public and parliamentary procedures have been satisfactorily enacted.
Melvyn Bragg
Richard Eyre
David Lascelles
David Owen
Jonathan Pryce
Ken Loach
Rebecca O’Brien
Paul Laverty
John McCarthy
Alan Bennett
Helena Kennedy

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