NHS in crisis:
Hewitt ‘isolated from real world’
THE NATIONAL Health Service is still by far the biggest political
issue in most areas of the country. Patricia Hewitt’s foolish comment
that the NHS was having its best ever year is treated with derision.
Jackie Grunsell, a GP and Socialist Party member who is standing in
the council elections in Huddersfield for the Save Huddersfield NHS
campaign told the socialist: "That remark shows that she’s
completely isolated from the real world.
"I haven’t met anyone who works in the health service, or anyone
who uses it, who would agree with her. At the UNISON health conference,
people were angry but they were laughing at her stupid comments."
NHS worker Andrew Billson-Page, standing in South Lakeland council
for the Save Westmorland Hospital group, also said that nursing staff
mostly saw her remarks as a bad joke.
Socialists have been pointing out that the extra money that Hewitt
claims has been ploughed into the NHS had largely been eaten up by
privatisation schemes like the PFI, by measures designed to increase
competition between hospitals such as payment by results and other
measures of market madness.
Lanarkshire
Protecting majorities or defending NHS?
LOCAL PEOPLE in Lanarkshire, Scotland, demonstrated on 22 April at
Monklands Hospital in Airdrie. Even Blair’s defence secretary John Reid
– a local Westminster MP – was there, hypocritically protesting at
policies of the New Labour Scottish Executive!
Ray Gunnion
People fear that proposed changes are downgrading vital health
resources and causing disparity between local areas. Lanarkshire has
three hospitals, two are PFI at Wishaw and Hairmyres (East Kilbride) and
one NHS hospital at Monklands.
The local health board’s preferred option is to close Monklands’
A&E unit and turn it into a planned surgery hospital. The board’s
alternative option is to downgrade Hairmyres.
Our broad-based pressure group, Lanarkshire Health United, created by
North Lanarkshire Trades Council, has fought for the status quo plus.
During the consultation period we consistently won the arguments at
public meetings across Lanarkshire.
With only two A&E units, life would undoubtedly be less precious
as ambulance staff search desperately for spare capacity in Lanarkshire,
with surrounding health authorities unable or unwilling to take surplus
emergencies. Our group’s tactics included occupying the Health Board’s
HQ. This won us a full meeting with the Board where we argued for our
alternative document.
Now the consultation period is over, we plan to bombard the six
Lanarkshire Labour Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) with
letters, lobby them at their surgeries and the Holyrood Parliament in
Edinburgh. We warn them that their political careers are in jeopardy as
local elections approach in 2007. Scotland’s First Minister, Jack
McConnell is MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw. Health Minister Andy Kerr is
MSP for East Kilbride.
The Labour Party have allowed North and South Lanarkshire Labour MSPs
and district councillors to play the blinkered game of competing with
each other, like ferrets in a sack, to protect their own particular
patches. They are more interested in protecting their majorities than in
maintaining and improving people’s health provision.
Unison health conference
Workers demand action
AT UNISON’S health conference, UNISON president Christine Wilde tried
to make sure Patricia Hewitt was heard without interruption (though
delegates asked why was she invited to conference anyway?). Her
statements were greeted with laughter, jeering and amazement, showing
the conference’s enormous anger at cuts in services, privatisation of
the NHS and job losses around the country.
Gary Freeman, Southern Derbyshire healthcare UNISON,
personal capacity
During the conference’s first day, delegate after delegate spoke
about their local issues and calls for industrial action received a good
response. A motion from Eastern regional health committee saying that
attacks on the NHS could only be stopped by "concerted national
action" was passed.
Such is the pressure building up on the Sectional Group Executive (SGE),
that they supported the resolution. SGE chair Dave Godson had spoken
earlier saying Blair had managed to do what 18 years of Tory
underfunding had failed to do – to break up our NHS. Again reflecting
the pressure, he said UNISON was embarking on a local industrial
strategy.
Earlier UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said that there was a
line in the sand whichever government was in power – opposition to
privatisation and marketisation of our health service. UNISON would
support members who feel they have no other alternative but to take
industrial action to defend jobs and services.
But delegates said more was needed. Socialist Party (SP) member Roger
Davey from Swindon and Wiltshire talked of the threat to close four
community hospitals in his area with around 300 redundancies. He
reported on intimidation of staff threatened with disciplinary action if
they attended demonstrations – he said UNISON had to do more.
One delegate said she never thought she’d say this but "this
government is forcing the NHS to look at industrial action."
Brian Loader, another SP member from NHS Logistics, reported on the
outsourcing of his organisation to DHL/Novation and called for the
unions to call a national demonstration that could have hundreds of
thousands of people on it.
Karen Jennings, UNISON’s national head of health, who had earlier
talked of "the vultures hovering over the NHS", complimented
Brian for his excellent work fighting privatisation.
Adrian O’Malley from Wakefield and Pontefract hospitals (another SP
member), speaking shortly after Hewitt’s speech, likened her to Mrs
Thatcher’s twin sister.
As we go to press, Wakefield and Pontefract hospitals’ emergency
motion calling for ‘a national day of action against the cuts’, has been
accepted for debate. SP members will be striving for the motion to be
timetabled as soon as possible.
When delegates ask why has it taken so long for the SGE even to
reflect any of this mood, we need to explain that their links to Labour,
as well as the officials being largely divorced from the membership,
will hold our union back.
Now the pressure from the union members is so great that it has had
to be reflected, if weakly, in calls for action by the leadership.
By Tuesday morning, 41 copies of the socialist have been sold and
£425 fighting fund has been raised including surplus expenses donated
by Socialist Party members. Thanks to Hannah from Durham and Leah from
Newcastle for helping with our sales.
Doctors’ protest at betrayal
Hundreds of doctors from non-EU countries protested outside the
health department on 21 April. They feel betrayed by a sudden change in
immigration rules which may leave many of them jobless. Thousands may be
forced to leave the country without completing their training, even
though they were encouraged to come to the UK in the first place.
