Whipps Cross Hospital:
"We’re seeing the Americanisation of the NHS"
OVER 30 people, many of them health workers, came to the first Waltham
Forest Save our NHS campaign meeting. Len Hockey, UNISON joint branch
secretary at Whipps Cross hospital, outlined the attacks that the
hospital Trust, the PCT and Rentokil/Initial are trying to make.
Health workers spoke about the climate of intimidation and fear in the
hospital with everybody worrying about their jobs. Whipps Cross has
already been on red alert and now 400 jobs are under threat. "There is so
much tension. People are losing it and it’s not good for patient care,"
said one health worker. "Patients are being put at risk," said one nurse.
"We need to be physically and mentally alert. It’s inevitable that minor
and even major mistakes will be made if these cuts go through".
"If they close the care of the elderly ward patients will not get the
specialist treatment they need". "Patients are going out of the back door
and then coming back in through the front," added another.
A trainee nurse explained how she wanted to sit and hold the hand of a
dying patient who had no relatives or friends. Her ward sister said she
couldn’t because she wouldn’t get authorisation for overtime on the time
sheets! The nurse stayed with the patient until she died but on her own
time.
There is no deficit in the PCT yet £15 million in cuts are being
proposed. District nurse posts are being frozen and school nurses are
under threat.
"We pay taxes and we’re being led to the slaughterhouse," one health
worker told the meeting. "Where will the capacity come from?" asked
another. "It will be the private sector. We’re seeing the Americanisation
of the NHS".
Most people at the meeting put down their names to be part of an
organising committee. Many said they would support the lunchtime protest
the following day (see photo right).
It was agreed that a local demonstration would be held as soon as the
cuts were confirmed and that maximum pressure would be put on the UNISON
union’s national leadership to organise a national demonstration against
the cuts as agreed at UNISON health conference.
Health workers speak out
HEALTH WORKERS at the Whipps Cross hospital protest told the socialist
why they were protesting.
"It’s not just about job cuts and pay. They’ve also been cutting the
overtime and just making life harder for everyone. It’s not getting any
better. There’s a few people who could be made redundant. Everybody is
really worried about what’s happening. You don’t feel like coming into
work. We definitely need a strike or something. Something has to be done.
That’s the way forward."
A Whipps Cross porter
"They’re picking on the wrong people, on the people that do the work
and keep the hospital going. It’s disgusting."Kenny Welsh, Porter
"We are underpaid. We need better working conditions. And we get
treated like rubbish."Porter
"I’m here today because patient care is a priority and not a
compromise. We need people to help us to save the nurses because we are
the ones that ultimately save the patients."Adele, auxiliary nurse
"We’re here today campaigning because we want equal pay with the NHS
staff. We do exactly the same work why don’t we get exactly the same pay?
All we’re fighting for is a few more holidays, the same as our NHS
colleagues get and the right to sick pay because we don’t have that right
at the moment. We just can’t afford to be sick. If we’re sick we have to
come into work which isn’t right. And it isn’t healthy for us to do
that."Vanessa, switchboard operator
"I’ve worked in the NHS for a long time, I was here before they
privatised and I’ve seen how they treat people and don’t want to see it
happen again. There are a lot less cleaners now than there used to be and
I think that’s contributed to MRSA. They think cleaners are at the bottom
of the scale but we are very important."Hillary, domestic
There’s so much uncertainty. We don’t know what’s going to happen. But
the union and the Waltham Forest Save our NHS campaign are working for
us. We hope we get what we want.Mohammed, domestic
When profit comes before health
THE GOVERNMENT talk about the importance of a healthy diet, but their
market-based policies are forcing many hospitals to have unhealthy burger
bars on their premises. Some NHS trusts, faced with huge deficits, are
bringing in burger bars and cafŽs run by major chains to get higher
rents.
So, Burger King has four outlets in hospitals, including one at
Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, which specialises in heart patients.
They often replace hospital cafŽs staffed by volunteers from groups
like WRVS, that can’t afford to pay the same level of commercial rent. In
the past, they were charged low rents for running cafŽs and paid back any
profits to the hospitals. But now the domination of market forces in the
NHS means that food venues of dubious health value will prevail.
The shops are run on a franchise run by Medirest. They are part of the
Compass Group who also own Scolarest, the firm that tried to palm off
fat- and salt-ridden junk food such as Turkey Twizzlers on our schools
until a media campaign stopped them.
New Labour’s market policies mean that profit comes before health in
both the NHS and education – and that’s outrageous.
Gloucestershire
Fighting for our services
HEALTH CARE in Gloucestershire faces devastation after the Primary
Care Trusts (PCT) announced that nine hospitals, 500 jobs, 240 beds and
an ambulance station face the axe. Already campaigns plan demonstrations
in the Forest of Dean and Stroud and public-sector union UNISON is
organising a protest in Cheltenham.
Chris Moore
Health bosses hope to rush through these cuts to meet government
deadlines for balancing the books, trying to claw back a £45 million
deficit. Our NHS is now being ravaged by business minded bureaucrats. It
was Forest of Dean miners who paid for Dilke Hospital in 1925 and Stroud
residents who originally helped fund the maternity hospital. We’re now
going to fight for our services.
In Stroud hundreds packed into a meeting to fight the cuts. Local
residents and health workers vented their anger, but hypocritically local
Labour and Tory politicians joined us. They blamed local mismanagement
rather than Labour’s policy of bringing business interests and
privatisation into the NHS or the Tories’ dismal record in starting the
dismantling of our health service.
In 2002 Labour reintroduced an ‘internal market’ (a Tory policy) into
the NHS. Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt talked of "money following the
patient’ adding ‘if services aren’t attracting patients because they’re
not good enough, they may have to close."
Small community hospitals will always struggle to be as profitable as
larger hospitals so it’s no surprise they’re under threat. Yet Stroud
Maternity is the third largest birth centre in Britain and has offered a
vital maternity-run service for over 50 years. I was born there and my 7
month-old baby girl had marvellous ante- and post-natal care there.
Blair and Hewitt talk of increasing one-to-one maternity care and
giving more choice for expectant families. Stroud’s ‘choice’ is a 15-mile
journey to a unit in Gloucester that closed 17 times last year because of
lack of staff.
Gloucestershire Socialist Party has been out campaigning for months,
explaining why we face the cuts and trying to build and link the various
campaigns. We don’t want to save one hospital at the expense of others
being axed.
We’re also pressurising Unison to play a leading role. Stroud
maternity staff already say they want industrial action considered to
safeguard our lives and services.
We say:
- Link up the campaigns locally and nationally to defend all our
services. - End privatisation and the ‘internal market.’
- Bring all health care into one nationally planned, properly
financed and publicly owned service free at the point of use.
