Hinckley - marching to save our hospital

ON 16 September 70 people marched in Hinckley, between Leicester and Coventry, against cuts at George Eliot Hospital, Nuneaton. The Trust plan to close A & E services at weekends, and cut provision for paediatric care and the local maternity unit - women with complex pregnancies will have to be treated in Leicester or Coventry.

Andrew Walton Leicester

Campaigners fear this is a step towards closing the entire hospital - soon all local patients may have to travel to Coventry or Leicester.

Coventry Socialist Party councillor Dave Nellist told the rally that Walsgrave PFI hospital in Coventry was "hoovering up" patients from around the county to attract more funding. The real fault lies in the internal NHS market, invented by the Tories - which pits hospital against hospital.

We need a properly planned, democratically controlled NHS, which puts patients' needs first, not the interests of private companies, whose only responsibility is to their shareholders.

Many people who signed our petition at Leicester Socialist Party's stall had relatives working at the hospital, had used the facility or worked for the NHS themselves. 42 copies of the socialist were sold.

Hinckley and Bosworth Pensioners' Group organised the rally. People with longer memories remember the days before the NHS was introduced and don't want to return to a society where healthcare has to be paid for.

In those days, the poor had to go without decent health care. New Labour want to turn the clock back 60 years by handing over our health service to profiteers.

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