Support the London wide save our NHS demonstration

This weekend see’s nother step towards saving the NHS. A London wide demonstration, this must be just the start. The chair of the National Health Service (NHS) regulator has warned that pressure on Accident and Emergency (A&E) units is "out of control... [and] totally unsustainable". David Prior, head of the Care Quality Commission, was reported as saying it meant he could not guarantee against any future scandals similar to the highly publicised tragedy of Mid Staffordshire NHS. This increasing pressure has led to a number of A&Es struggling to hit targets for waiting times. Bizarrely, Mr Prior's response to this appears to be to call for fewer, not more, resources. He told the King's Fund health think tank that "if we don't start closing acute beds, the system is going to fall over". He believes that the increased pressure is due to people "misusing" A&E services for less serious health problems, which they would apparently be less likely to do if they knew there were less resources! Anyone who thinks about this, even briefly, will see the lie in it. Clearly, those who do not actually need the services will never be sent on to acute beds; however if beds are cut it will be the patients who do need these services that will be left waiting for longer. The BBC's health correspondent Nick Triggle, reporting on the story, mentioned some more believable reasons for the increased demand on A&Es, including: "A rise in the number of people with chronic conditions, such as heart disease, that end up having emergencies; the ageing population; and problems accessing out-of-hours GP care." This shows the need for more staff and resources, not less. Triggle also made a fleeting but telling reference to "staffing problems". 6,000 nursing jobs across the NHS have been cut since the Con-Dems came to power, with that number expected to double by 2015. Closures This story also raises further concerns over plans to close four A&Es across north-west London. Communities covered by Ealing, Central Middlesex, Charring Cross, and Hammersmith hospitals have been campaigning against the closure of their A&E services, which would mean in an emergency they would have to travel to one of the remaining A&Es at five other hospitals covering the wider area. How five A&Es are expected to take on the previous workload of nine while maintaining waiting list targets is not clear, although perhaps a hidden agenda is revealed later in Mr Prior's speech when he blamed the NHS's apparent problems on the lack of a health market. Aside from the fact that an internal market has existed, and has been undermining the NHS, for over 20 years now, this also hints at the future of healthcare in north-west London, and nationally. When the remaining hospitals struggle with the additional demand and become "failing" hospitals, the bloodsuckers of the market will step in. This is so much easier now under the Health and Social Care Act. No one who works for the NHS would claim it is perfect, but we must fight to defend and improve it, as opposed to running it into the ground to be replaced with a system that puts profits over patients, which is the true aim of scare stories like this. The London demonstration (see box) can help pull together health workers and campaigners as we have seen in many other local demos. However, these must be followed by a national demonstration to focus the defence of the NHS. The trade unions must take the lead in this campaign, including building for coordinated industrial action and a 24-hour general strike, to stop the government's destructive agenda. Defend London's NHS All-London demo organised by trade unions and health campaigners. Saturday 18 May. Assemble 12 noon, Jubilee Gardens, Waterloo. National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) Defend the NHS - new bulletin Downloadable resource - available at: http://shopstewards.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/NSSN-NHS-Bulletin3-1.pdf article taken from www.socialistparty.org.uk

Save Lewisham hospital’s A and E, could be your hospital next!

Last Saturday saw one of the biggest local demonstrations in south London in protest to save the local A and E at Lewisham which is threatened with closure. Over 25 thousand marched on the day and from what I’ve gathered was a tremendous atmosphere with young and old on the demo. This was a real community demo. The scale of support for the campaign was shown by the presence of the local football team Millwall's bus at the closing rally. Such was size of the march that it had to move off about half an hour early so that everyone could join. Despite it causing traffic to come to a standstill, many drivers tooted their support for the protest. Among the many union banners were the National Shop Stewards Network and Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition. This was the second demo organised against recommendations in a paper authored by Special Administrator Matthew Kershaw who was commissioned by the Con-Dem government to do a hatchet job on NHS services in South London. It was in anticipation of 1 February when Kershaw will submit his plans to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt for rubber-stamping. Petitions, letters and marches have been organised, but these alone will not save Lewisham Hospital. Today we hear that the A and E services at Lewisham are to be down graded. The A&E department at Lewisham hospital in south-east London is to be downgraded and made smaller as part of cost-cutting measures. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt also said the maternity unit at Lewisham would be replaced with a midwife-led facility. The cuts aim to help tackle debts of £150m at the neighbouring South London Healthcare NHS Trust Jos Bell, a Save Lewisham Hospital campaigner, called the announcement "a complete travesty". She rejected Mr Hunt's estimate that journey times to other Ages in the area would only take one minute longer. Ms Bell, who collapsed with heart and respiratory failure in 2006, added: "I'm only alive because Lewisham is where it is." Lewisham's mayor, Steve Bullock, said: "The secretary of state is riding roughshod over the people of Lewisham. This is not the end of the matter. "I do not believe that the Trust Special Administrator had the statutory power to make recommendations about Lewisham Hospital and the secretary of state therefore has no power to implement them. "I will be talking to our lawyers and we will also of course need to talk to our colleagues at Lewisham Hospital in order to fully understand the implications of Mr Hunt's statement." SO on the demo given all this Socialist Party members on the demo raised the idea that our strategy must be based on the health trade unions and pressure on them to ballot their members for strike action to save the NHS, solidly backed by the community. A workers' occupation of Lewisham Hospital could be organised to stop equipment being removed and facilities run down. Over 2,500 Socialist Party leaflets calling for strike action to defend Lewisham A&E were taken by demonstrators. This attempt to attack jobs and services at Lewisham Hospital is not the first. During 2006 the then Labour government proposed the closure of A&E, maternity and paediatric services. Socialist Party former councillors Chris Flood and Ian Page launched a petition opposing the attacks to build up pressure on MPs and councillors. Chris Flood proposed a motion to the council for 'referring back' Labour's outrageous plans. Although Labour and Lib Dem councillors opposed this, pressure eventually forced the government to back down and the hospital was saved then. What’s clear is this is just the start and the battle to save Lewisham A and E will need a serious fightback including the workers if it is to succeed. Labours opportunist role in this has not gone unnoticed either their last governments role in PFI schemes up and down the country has been raised time after time in this campaign The hypocrisy must be exposed having Tories march on demo’s to save their local NHS when the national government is ripping it apart is a disgrace. But now this time round it are Labour councillors and MPs who are giving lip service to the campaign to oppose the closures, while at the same time pushing through £28 million of council cuts to jobs and services over the next three years. They are doing the Con-Dems' dirty work. Recognising the links between all the cuts to jobs and public services, one street cleaner clearing up after the demo proudly displayed a Socialist Party Save our NHS placard in his cart. At the end of the march, demonstrators were queuing up to sign the Socialist Party petition in defence of NHS services in south London. They recognised that we need to save all NHS services and not allow the campaign to be just about defending Lewisham A&E at the expense of other NHS services in south London. With thanks to Susanna Farley and Chris Newby For extracts from the socialist this week which can be read at http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/750/16046/30-01-2013/nhs-workers-resist-cuts

2013 the year the fight back to save the NHS is stepped up

The NHS is still facing a huge crisis due to huge funding cuts and privatisation. Big struggles were waged last year in 2012 but 2013 the battle to save ourNHS needs to be stepped up hugely. The tories that have always had it in for the NHS due to the fact the rich don’t use it and see it as unnecessary to the progression of capitalism. Recently the 2013 'State of the Nation' poll found huge support for the NHS and 72% agreed that: "we must do everything we can to maintain it". The NHS is said to be more valued to our nation than the royal family I think that tells you a lot about people’s feelings today. Never before has this support been so needed. The Con-Dems' attacks so far include 5,000 nurses' jobs axed, a 4% cut in the money hospitals will receive for treatment in 2013 and plans for hospital closures. But both health workers and the public reject this. The strike by Unison members in the Mid-Yorkshire Hospital Trust against 'down-banding' pay cuts is an inspiring example. Branch secretary Adrian O'Malley pointed out that: "workers will support action to defend the NHS when a lead is given. We've recruited 200 new union members which show what can be done". A massive campaign in Lewisham, south London, is fighting threats to the local hospital. After a very successful protest march in November, another demonstration is planned for 26 January. Health axe-man Matthew Kershaw recommended to Tory health secretary Jeremy Hunt that the South London Healthcare NHS Trust should be broken up. Some services, he said, would carry on under new administration, others would perish. He asked Hunt to order the closure of Lewisham hospital's A&E department, used by 125,000 people a year. Kershaw added an extra insult in his report by insisting that Lewisham's maternity unit should become a midwife-led 'birthing unit' i.e. one with no obstetricians or paediatricians. This is fine if there are likely to be no complications in labour. But more than half of the 4,400 pregnant women who use Lewisham hospital are classed as at 'high risk' of complications. And as with the A&E closure, neighbouring hospitals will come under increasing pressure. Both Kings College and Queen Elizabeth hospitals have recently been diverting ambulances carrying women on the verge of giving birth because local cutbacks mean they cannot cope. The cuts measures would lose the hospital £195 million by 2015-16. All in order to safeguard the huge investments and profits of the private PFI firms whose greed caused the Trust's bankruptcy in the first place. With a battle bus touring the region, door-to-door leafleting and leaflets aimed at fans of local football teams, the community campaign has done good work. Staff at Lewisham hospital and other units facing attacks wants to get involved - even when their own union leaderships try to hold them back. Socialist Party members are encouraging nurses and other NHS workers to press hard within their union branches for a workplace ballot for industrial action. Health workers would be widely supported if they went on strike to save our local hospital and the beleaguered NHS. The Socialist Party demands on the NHS include: • No cuts, closures or job losses in the NHS • End privatisation. Scrap PFI and refuse to pay back the 'debt' • Nationalise the pharmaceutical companies under democratic control and integrate them into the NHS • For mass action to defend the NHS, including a 24-hour general strike With extracts taken from this week’s article in the socialist http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/748/15983/16-01-2013/mass-action-to-save-our-nhs

PFI = Profit from Illness, drive profiteering out of our NHS!

Private finance initiative has been crippling our NHS for decades now. With many hospitals now a certain hospital trust in south London facing difficulties it’s time to end this profit mad system and re nationalize the NHS and kick out the profiteers from our health care once and for all.


The South London Healthcare NHS Trust has already lost £150m

The trust runs three hospitals and has run up deficits of more than £150m over the past three years. It is thought to be on course to lose between £150m and £375m by 2017.
Our staff has worked hard for patients and in spite of significant financial issues we are extremely proud we now have among the lowest mortality and infection rates in the country

Its chief executive was informed on Monday night that the trust is likely to be put into the "unsustainable providers regime", which was introduced by the last Labor government but never before used.

The administrator will take over the board and recommend measures to the Health Secretary to put the trust's finances on a sustainable basis. Which to me means nothing but cuts and a contraction of services offered and a round of redundancies for the staff.

Hospitals run by the trust include Queen Mary's in Sidcup, the Queen Elizabeth in Woolwich and the Princess Royal in Bromley.

It is clear to me to save the NHS PFI must be rejected out of hand and all services brought back into proper democratic public ownership. With a trade union lead campaign with local communities and the mass of the working class behind a campaign to save the NHS we can save it only if we act now. Each day a further piece of our NHS is lost if we don’t act now it’ll be gone in a few years time. A distant memory.

PFI was begun in the early 1990s by the then Tory government. It was attacked by Labour when in opposition, but then massively accelerated under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's governments. Today there are hundreds of PFI projects covering hospitals, schools, roads, bridges, police stations and prisons.
Instead of a public body building a new facility using public money, albeit through a contract with a private builder or developer, PFI involves a private sector developer or consortium doing the whole job. It borrows the money (often at higher rates of interest than the government would), builds the project and then charges a fee for 25 to 40 years for maintaining the buildings and usually also providing various services.
Labour spokespersons such as Patricia Hewitt and Alan Milburn condemned such PFI projects as 'backdoor privatization' when in opposition. In government, however, as health secretaries, they claimed it was the 'only game in town'. And curiously, after government, they (and many other Labour ex-ministers) got lucrative private sector jobs and consultancies, many in the same areas where they had been ministers.
The Financial Times estimated in 2007 that, after ten years of New Labour, the total capital value of PFI contracts across the UK was £68 billion - but that the total which would be given to the private companies involved in those contracts, by the time they were finished, would be £215 billion!
Three years later, in November 2010, the total payment obligation for PFI contracts in the UK had rocketed to £267 billion. And in the first year of the Tory/Lib Dem coalition a further 61 PFI schemes, with a capital value of £7 billion were approved. PFI has become a 'milch cow' for big business in the public sector.

Millions being wasted on medicines, provide for need not profit in the NHS

As the NHS privatisation bill makes its way through parliament which looks likely to win support their from the 3 capitalist parties. A news item came to my attention
The NHS in the South Central region says wasted medicines are costing it £20m a year.

Health chiefs said the money lost across NHS Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire and Isle of Wight could pay for 785 more nurses.

Unused or partially used medicines cannot be recycled and have to be thrown away.

An NHS spokesman said patients should think about what they were ordering and only ask for what they needed.

He added: "Any other medicines can be dispensed when needed at a later date."

Nationally it is believed people store about £90 million worth of unused prescription medicines at any one tim


Further proof i'd say taht there is huge waste in competition and further dose's of competition introducing more market forces into our NHS will result in more results like this. Leading to waste and more bureaucracy .

The NHS and medicine should be produced and services met with the idea of meeting peoples needs not creating vast waste in competition sake for the benifit of a fews profits.

This NHS bill mthe government wants to put forward will increase the chances of this sort of event happening if thebill is not stopped.

Only united mass action on the scale we havent seen for a long time with trade unions, workers and service users with strike action a threat at the heart of it can defeat this bill and save our NHS.

What future does the NHS have ?

Tonight saw what could possibly have been the end of the NHS as we know it.

The health bill cleared its Commons stages on Wednesday, despite criticism from some Lib Dems as well as Labour.

It was approved by MPs by 65 votes, and will now go to the House of Lords where it is expected to face further opposition.

Earlier this year, the government was forced to "pause" the bill while ministers re-consulted on the proposals via a listening exercise called the NHS Future Forum.

A number of changes were subsequently made to the legislation.



But this has been widely met with anger and bitterness from many in the public who feel this was never given to them to vote on at the last general election last year. Many feel agrieved and angry at David Cameron who promised no more NHS shake ups under his government he has quite clearly broken this promie as has Nick Clegg and his Lib dems by towing the line with this. This was not in the coalition agreement and as so is deeply unfair to the public who had no say in this.

I attended a protest myself at a local hospital which is due to be knocked down and rebuilt with minor facilities but no A and E or anything like waht it is right now. I was joined by a fair few protesters but what strok me was the general lack of fight in people to save the NHS and put up a fight to keep it in public hands. Many people i speak too seem angry at this health bill being voted through but seemed like in a daze before hand and a sense of inevatability about it all like they were resigned to it going already.

This was not helped by the unions including Unison and the TUC supporting campaigns to save the NHS with a candle lit vigils. If there is anything so depressing and resigned as that i've yet to see one. What kind of protest is that ? its almost as bad as ex NUS leader Aaron Porter last year over the student tuitian fees. Quite pathetic really so far from our unions which i do still hold great faith in. But todays passing of the bill reminded me how sluggish and slow we've all been in defending the NHS and all that it stands for.

But what does the future hold for our beloved NHS you may ask.

well if you have ever been abroad to America and had to pay for treatment before you got seen by a doctor that is very similar to what they intend to do here in Britain.

The tories plans to open the NHS up to outside providers including private companies to provide a cheaper service will mean hospital closures, staff redundancies and a completely different organisation from waht we know today.

There will be no obligation on the government to provide health care free at the point of use any longer. Now this bill is passed they can roll full steam ahead in destroying which is argueably one of our greatest achievements as the working class. Winning a health care system that was free to all who needed it was won over years of working class struggles and determination to see we all were able to gain decent treatment in health care.

I just worry for this country with the young being hammered from pillar to post with trebling of tuitain fees, abolishing of the EMA grant and a dire lack of jobs for the young and now the certain destruction of our NHS. I just am wondering when the trade union movement and the labour movement is going to get up off its knees and start fighting back. It has got to be sooner rather than later for all our sakes.

The NSSN will be lobbying the TUC t his sunday at 1.30 at the TUC's annual congress in London to urge them to call a public sector general strike. This is needed more than ever and the role of the TUC in co-ordinating this should be key. We can only try and drag them into action much like we had to to call a national demonstration last year which eventually they called being dragged kicking and screaming by the most militant trade unionists out there. I fear the same will have to be done again to get anywhere with these soft moderates who are happy to isolate action and put off any action and wait for a labour government . Well i'm afraid that will just not do this time. We cannot wait for a labour government we need action now. Real working class united fightback. The unions still have the power if they choose to use it. We must force them to use it from below if they wont from the top.