Tyneside walk-in closures postponed after campaign and rally

photo Nick Fray

photo Nick Fray   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

An excellent Save Our NHS rally took place in North Shields town centre on 2 December. The protest was called against the closure of two walk-in centres in the area and the proposal to replace them with a single privatised centre.

Members of the public spoke about their experiences and the effects of NHS cuts. Campaigners also spoke at the rally including John Whalley, the secretary of Keep Our NHS Public North East and NHS campaigners from South Shields.

I spoke too from the Socialist Party, pointing out that up to 250,000 people turned out for the national NHS demonstration on 4 March.

Imagine how massive a protest called by Jeremy Corbyn and the trade unions would be. 50 people bought copies of the Socialist newspaper.

Following the protest a clinical commissioning group meeting took place on 5 December which took the decision to postpone the closure of the walk-in centres until October 2018.

The original scheduled closure was October 2017 so the campaign has managed to force a year’s postponement.

But we need to use the extra time to continue to build the campaign to ensure the walk-in centres stay open.

John Hoare, Save Tyneside NHS campaign committee