Health workers marching on the demo for the NHS, 4.3.17, photo Mary Finch

Health workers marching on the demo for the NHS, 4.3.17, photo Mary Finch   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Carlisle Socialist Party

The background to the misnamed ‘success regimes’ in Cumbria – in reality closure of beds, hospitals and services – is creeping NHS privatisation, cuts, increased workload and pay freezes. Made worse by the private finance initiative (PFI) scandal that means we have to pay more than £1 billion for the Cumberland Infirmary which cost £67 million to build.

And now the government wants to cut £22 billion, which will lead to more hospitals and services closing. Mothers and babies will die or suffer brain damage if the maternity unit in Whitehaven is closed in a year’s time.

The Tories have always been against the NHS. They opposed its introduction in 1948 and formerly secret cabinet papers published last year show that in 1982 Thatcher wanted to bring in compulsory private health insurance.

They realised they couldn’t get away with it, but in 1991 started the ‘internal market’. The last health act got rid of the government’s duty to provide health cover for the population.

Up to 49% of income can now come from private patients. In Bournemouth a private GP practice now offers to see patients sooner and for longer if they can fork out £145.

Since bursaries for student nurses and midwives were abolished, applicants have fallen by 23%. The number of doctors and nurses, already inadequate and far fewer per head than in other countries, is set to fall even further.

We don’t want to lose our NHS, we want to improve it – we will fight to save it. Join the save our NHS protest march in Carlisle city centre, 12 noon on Saturday 8 April.

We demand:

  • No cuts, closures or privatisation
  • Scrap PFI, nationalise the drug companies and return all privatised or outsourced services to the NHS
  • Cumbria County Council should veto the sustainability and transformation plans and ‘success regime’ cuts and abandon its planned closure of care home beds
  • For a fully tax-funded, high quality NHS under democratic control, free at the point of use – a socialist NHS!