The Socialist 21 February 2008

No wage cuts! Fund equal pay

Troops out of Iraq now!

Stop the witch-hunt: Defend the Sheridan 7

Prison officers fight Labour's strike ban

Battle for Shropshire schools goes on

Coventry protests at Widdecombe's attacks

Football: Top of the League for greed

Northern Rock - Labour's reluctant nationalisation

1918-2008: Clause 4 and nine decades of workers' struggles

Record fall in home ownership

London's health care under further attack

Private clinics fail

Hospitals "stacking" patients

Fighting back and building a demo

"Not making sufficient profit"

Universities in crisis: Fees favour the rich

Exeter students fight privatisation

Nottingham defends democracy

Kosovan independence - a dangerous mirage?

Greece: Second general strike in two months

CWI school in Latin America

Science, Marxism and the big bang

It's official - Unison launches witch-hunt on Socialist Party

Socialist gains in Unison branch elections

Collection cuts and bullying equals bin strike!

Victory for council street wardens

Rail pension dispute

Union merger: OILC and RMT

Marching against single status

Solidarity with Pakistan workers

Previous issues, etc

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Hospitals "stacking" patients

THE GOVERNMENT has a long-standing promise that all out-patients are treated within four hours of admission to accident and emergency units. But a health trade union has revealed that thousands of seriously ill patients are suffering to meet this pledge.

Ambulances are being used as waiting rooms outside hospital emergency units to 'stack up' patients, so treatment can be said to have been completed within four hours of entering the hospital. This causes widespread distress and some patients have died during these enforced waits.

An official of Unison, the union representing many ambulance workers, said that:. "A fully equipped ambulance and a fully trained ambulance crew are effectively babysitting patients when they should be out there dealing with emergencies. Ambulances should not be used as mobile waiting rooms. They should be freed up to do their job."

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No wage cuts! Fund equal pay