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Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1016/28197
From The Socialist newspaper, 31 October 2018
Campaign building to save Scarborough and district hospitals
Save our NHS, photo Mary Finch (Click to enlarge)
Nigel Smith, York Socialist Party
The campaign against York NHS Trust transferring non-medical staff into a 'wholly owned subsidiary' - a step towards privatisation - has exploded into a mass campaign to save the Scarborough and district hospitals from cuts.
A management consultancy company has been brought in to advise the trust on a review of acute services. People in Scarborough fear this will result in only one thing: cuts to the services at Scarborough Hospital and to the other trust hospitals in Whitby, Bridlington and Filey. The hospitals in Selby and Malton could also be affected.
An online petition against cuts to services has already secured almost 24,000 supporters and there are over 12,000 members of the Facebook group. This is extraordinary in a town with a population of less than 62,000.
Hundreds of citizens have already attended so-called consultation meetings, putting the hospital management on the back foot. The trust claims that it has no firm proposals to cut, but similar promises made in other trusts turned out to be false.
York NHS Trust has already proved to be opaque and divisive in setting up a wholly owned subsidiary and people know this.
A two-day strike against the setting up of this company has already taken place. More industrial action looks inevitable.
The first Save Scarborough and District Hospitals planning meeting has taken place. I was invited to as chair of the steering group fighting privatisation plans across the trust.
Mike Forster from the successful Hands off Huddersfield Royal Infirmary campaign and Socialist Party member sent greetings and gave advice to the group.
There is a determination to put an end to the erosion of NHS services across the region, a determination that can stop these attacks.
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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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- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
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In The Socialist 31 October 2018:
What we think
Crisis Tory Budget brings no relief from austerity
News
Only a socialist alternative can end austerity
Philip Green scandal - bring him down like BHS
60% of wildlife wiped out - urgent action needed to save planet
Workplace news
Glasgow's equal pay uprising shows power of working class
CWU conference: Sharpen up our act? Yes. But weaken our democracy? No
Welsh college staff set to strike on pay and workload
UCU: General secretary censured but anti-union laws frustrate strike ballot
Driving London's buses - a laser in the eye and a boot up the bum!
PCS Left Unity election: ballot opens
National Gallery reps endorse Chris Baugh
Precarious workers march against gig economy
Peterloo massacre
International socialist news and analysis
Bolsonaro - a threat to workers and all oppressed people
Parliamentary coup in Sri Lanka
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Call to arms by Southampton council unions
Campaign building to save Scarborough and district hospitals
The Socialist sales successes in Leeds
Opinion
'Lucas Plan' film tells story of workers who set out alternative to job losses
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