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From The Socialist newspaper, 25 January 2017
Lancashire: Hospital workers protest consultation
NHS at breaking point - national demo and health workers' strike needed photo Paul Mattsson, photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge)
Becci Heagney, North West Socialist Party regional organiser
NHS England arranged meetings on 16 January at short notice at Calderstones Hospital in Whalley, Lancashire, to consult on the future of its services. These meetings run alongside an online consultation. However, the three options to choose from all include making cuts!
Despite millions being spent on state of the art buildings in 2007 and 2013 at the site, NHS England is now proposing closing all or most of them and building new hospitals in a different location. It is widely believed that this is "privatisation by stealth" and that many jobs and most of the services will be lost.
Calderstones has forensic medical beds for people with learning disabilities who have either been in contact with the criminal justice system, retained under the Mental Health Act or pose a risk to themselves or others. The number of these beds will be cut as part of the so-called "homes not hospitals" pledge by the NHS.
Unison members at the hospital held a fantastic protest outside the consultation meeting, before going in to make their views known. Now workers will need to fight for a genuine consultation, to defend the service and their jobs. Part of this struggle will hopefully be a contingent on the national NHS protest on 4 March.
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
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In The Socialist 25 January 2017:
What we think
NHS under attack
NHS SOS: Save the Women's Hospital
Defiant mood at North Tyneside STP consultation
Lancashire: Hospital workers protest consultation
Paignton: organising against hospital closure
Socialist Party news and analysis
Reject Surrey's 15% council tax increase
Bristol police taser own race relations adviser
2016 hottest year on record, air poisonous
Wales council votes to buy back homes
Isle of Wight independents resign over cuts
Come to the TUSC national conference 2017!
International socialist news and analysis
Huge anger internationally on marches against Trump
India: struggle against land grab in Pune
Workplace news and analysis
RMT determinedly continues Southern strike
Incensed BA cabin crew strike and protest over pay
Steely opposition growing to Tata pension offer
2017 Unite general secretary and executive elections
Socialist Party Marxist analysis
Don't we need competition to spur on progress?
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Huge anger against Trump across Britain
South London: march to save community centres
Obituary: Bernard Roome 1947-2017
Socialist readers' comments and reviews
Ed Balls: 'Speaking Out' for capitalism
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