LOCAL PEOPLE reacted angrily to news that Coventry University Hospital is considering making hundreds of workers redundant. On top of 189 full-time posts lost in the last six months the hospital now faces another 250 job losses in order to balance its books.
How can Patricia Hewitt claim that the NHS has ‘underspent’ by £500 million when she forces local hospitals to close wards and sack health workers to balance the books?
The hospital faces an extra £15 million squeeze this year to meet its payments for the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), which funds the new super-hospital. PFI is a disaster for the NHS. The Conservatives back the plan because they invented it, and Labour support it as part of their acceleration of privatisation in health and education.
Trade unionists at the hospital must meet urgently and decide to take action to stop this haemorrhage of jobs. And trade unionists across Coventry should pledge support to the health workers in this fight.
