Hewitt's 'day of exchange'

WATCHED BY local BBC and ITN camera crews, UNISON and RCN stewards/reps from across the East Midlands protested outside Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt's surgery on 3 March.

Six selected people went inside Hewitt's surgery where the minister reiterated all the 'positive points' (from her viewpoint) in the NHS. She didn't put forward anything new to address all the problems of cuts, privatisation etc. The UNISON branch secretary from a Leicester hospital pressed Hewitt on the cuts in the city's hospitals.

She challenged Hewitt: "I bet you, if you did my medical records work in my hospital for a week you will be more stressed at the end of the week, than if I did yours as Secretary of State for Health for a week." The result, picked up by the local media, was that Patricia Hewitt agreed to a day's exchange with the branch secretary!

Brian Loader

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