![\"Julie](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/dfbb03fc-2546-485d-8cde-ea42432203a2.jpg\")
Julie Ridgway was in Ludlow as part of a walk from Wrexham to Cardiff. Picture: LDRS<\/p>\nJoshua Oliver, an artist who goes under the name of Red Jay, is the founder of Hive Mind Speaks, which aims to bring critical social and political issues into the public consciousness.<\/p>\n
Julie Ridgway was in Ludlow as part of a walk from Wrexham to Cardiff. Picture: LDRS<\/p>\n
Starting at Whittington Hospital in London, where Mr Oliver was born, the NHS65 tour is visiting 65 locations across the UK, with 65 being the amount of years since Aneurin Bevan, who is widely considered to have founded the NHS, died.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It will culminate in a \u2018Citizen\u2019s Jury\u2019 at South Bank University on Saturday (April 12) where key figures will respond to the public\u2019s views.<\/p>\n
![\"Maggie](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1a99b73d-c9f1-4694-aaaf-4b29ee10a67e.jpg\")
Maggie Hughes gave her thoughts on the NHS. Picture: LDRS<\/p>\n
Mr Oliver will also hand deliver the responses to Health Secretary, Wes Streeting.<\/p>\n
![\"Hind](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/f23a44b1-2426-4937-b87a-1e28e41cdce9.jpg\")
Hind Minds Speak had a LED van displaying a satirical film showcasing the NHS. Picture: LDRS<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s for the public to get their voice heard in the future shaping of the NHS,\u201d said Mr Oliver, who went to school in Ludlow<\/a> and was born with a very rare musculoskeletal condition called Larsen\u2019s Syndrome.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re touring the country with a video on a van. I started making this video about two years ago and it\u2019s a direct response to concerns about privatisation.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s much more about worrying about the future of the NHS and I\u2019ve evolved a lot in understanding there it\u2019s such a bigger issue.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re canvassing public opinion, and grabbing all the feedback and feed it into the Government\u2019s own NHS change initiative and their 10-year plan.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Oliver added that his mum still lives in Ludlow and he can tell that the local NHS services are overstretched.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we are hearing from talking from people is they\u2019re really concerned about efficiency and lack of streamlining,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n What people in Ludlow had to say about the NHS:<\/strong><\/p>\n Maggie Hughes, who works at Ludlow College<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s working fine, except they need to stop messing with it. We\u2019ve got the Community Hospital, there is no need to move it.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are too many routine procedures, for example cateracs are being done in private which is costing the NHS money. And they\u2019re pushing them through because the private providers are charging the NHS loads of money when they\u2019re not life-threatening problems.\u201d<\/p>\n John Weyham, from Nash \u2013 a village between Clee Hill and Tenbury Wells<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe doctors and nurses are excellent, I can\u2019t fault them, but a lot of the main problems are in adminstration.<\/p>\n \u201cThe so called executives are paid a quarter million pounds a year, which is ridiculous when the doctors are nurses are struggling. We should be a first world country.\u201d<\/p>\n Julie Ridgway, from near Blackpool, who was in Ludlow as part of a a 150 mile walk from Wrexham to Cardiff<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not really a NHS user, but I do value the services they provide. There are certainly individuals in the world that need that medical support, and to have it available for us freely as a public service is a gift.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I do worry about is how much it is being stretched. I worry about the staff, not in terms of working for the NHS, but their own self care and the pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joshua Oliver, an artist who goes under the name of Red Jay, is the founder of Hive Mind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[105,4348,8823,379,8973,12,8972,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-13281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-ldrs","11":"tag-local-hubs","12":"tag-ludlow","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-south-shropshire","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114324099892136310","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Joshua](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2bddca66-e9a5-41db-b308-d01a1771025d.jpg\")
Joshua Oliver, who founded Hive Mind Speaks, was in Ludlow to speak to people about the future of the NHS. Picture: LDRS<\/p>\n