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Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/961/26105
From The Socialist newspaper, 6 September 2017
Huddersfield A&E closure goes to judicial review
Huddersfield, 27.2.16, photo Iain Dalton (Click to enlarge)
Huddersfield HRI campaign
There is anger on the streets of Huddersfield.
Anger at the malicious cuts in health care proposed by the CCG which puts the local community at risk.
Anger that people will be forced to go for A&E treatment in another town, Halifax, along one of the busiest and most congested roads in West Yorkshire.
Anger at the systematic intimidation NHS staff face in the hospital if they challenge these decisions and the inevitable redundancies that will follow.
And anger that that the local trust was looking for a new private finance initative deal for buildings when the existing one is costing tax-payers £22 million a year in mortgage payments of more than £770 million by 2058.
In the last week, hundreds crowded round the Hands Off HRI campaign stall in the centre of town to sign a petition against the proposals and empty their change and sometimes their wallets into the collection boxes.
At a packed public meeting on 31 August with over 100 in attendance, the Huddersfield Hands Off HRI campaign voted unanimously to proceed to a judicial review if the clinical commissioning group (CCG) did not withdraw its plans to shut down the local A&E and downgrade the local hospital replacing it with a clinic.
Relentless
At the meeting, Mike Forster, Socialist Party member and chair of the campaign outlined how the whole closure process had been recently referred to the secretary of state as a result of the relentless pressure and work done by campaign members. The campaign has raised £50,000 for judicial action and will now go on to crowd fund to raise more.
Speaker after speaker denounced the action of the CCG. Josh Smith, Socialist Party member representing Youth Hands off HRI, explained passionately how he depended so much on the NHS for his health all his life and was now facing having to pay for treatment.
He posed the question: "Whose NHS?" The roar back from the meeting was "Our NHS!" The fight goes on.
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In The Socialist 6 September 2017:
Socialist Party news and analysis
Fight council cuts - back the Brum bin strikers!
Historic McStrike: if we don't get it, shut it down!
UN slams Tories for disabled rights ruin
What we think
Tories weak: time for the TUC to act
Schools and teaching
Schools and teaching: A perfect storm of cuts, underfunding, excessive workloads and low pay
Socialist Party workplace news
Strike together for better pay
RMT fighting for passenger safety, accessibility and security
Merseyrail strike over safety: Labour mayor and councillors must reverse their decision
Fawley refinery canteen strikers tell their employer: "pay up"
College workers ballot for action in Nottingham
International socialist news and analysis
Hurricane Harvey: A tragedy made far worse by capitalism
Extreme weather events and global warming
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Determined protest against Chatsworth Ward closure
Young people are searching for an alternative - find it at Socialism 2017
Huddersfield A&E closure goes to judicial review
Three thousand attend Burston strike commemoration rally
Bristol's Labour mayor calls anti-austerity march - now stop making cuts!
Demonstrators see off far-right in Keighley
Anti-fracking campaigners' legal fight
Socialist Party comments and reviews
How the Single Market blocks socialist policies
Warts-and-all account of class war and the struggle for LGBT+ rights
'Let the producers of wealth unite - and what can withstand them?'
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