Join us today!
Printable version
Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1104/31444
From The Socialist newspaper, 7 October 2020
Leicester: Don't let them close our hospital
Save Our NHS Leicestershire on a national NHS demonstration in London 30 June 2018 (Click to enlarge)
Steve Score, Save Our NHS Leicestershire co-chair
When Boris Johnson falsely announced his government would build "40 new hospitals" at Tory conference a year ago, it turned out that in fact only six trusts were to get much delayed routine investment.
One of those was Leicester, promised £450 million for hospital "reconfiguration". The Save Our NHS Leicestershire campaign has been warning ever since that these plans involve the effective closure of one of the hospitals, in an area that serves over a million people.
The Leicester General Hospital is to be closed as an acute hospital, but will have a few non-acute services on site. Most of the land will be sold off for 'redevelopment'.
On this basis, the public consultation, which began on 28 September, has gone to great lengths to avoid the word 'closure', in order to disguise what is really happening from the public.
Socialist Party members play an important part in the campaign, established to continue momentum after the victory of the Save Glenfield Children's Heart Centre campaign (see 'Victory at Glenfield shows people power can save our NHS' at socialistparty.org.uk). The campaign is producing material, both physical and online, and planning events to explain what is happening.
You may wonder whether the middle of a pandemic is the right time for NHS bosses to begin a public consultation. No face-to-face public meetings or engagement can be carried out, excluding a large part of the public. The 1,700-page consultation document does not mention coronavirius or take account of the needs resulting from future waves of pandemic.
The plans might be OK if there was sufficient expansion of capacity and the number of beds to cope with a rising and ageing population, but there isn't. NHS bosses say the rest will be absorbed by an expansion of services in the community, but there are no details or explanation of where the money will come from for that.
Donate to the Socialist Party
Finance appeal
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 Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- 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.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
In The Socialist 7 October 2020:
Coronavirus news
Tories put profit first: Gambling with our jobs and lives
Massive testing 'glitch' caused by privatised fragmentation
Contact tracer speaks out: privatised system 'in chaos'
Workplace news
Unison: Hugo Pierre's fighting programme to transform the union
Equity 'Panto Parade' demands more support for arts workers
News
Fight for jobs and homes for all - defend the right to asylum
Spooks step up surveillance of left
Probation Service: 'angry, frustrated' staff need fighting lead
Students
Cardiff student protest demands: 'refund our fees!'
Southampton students oppose unjust collective punishment
Black History Month
Non-fiction: 'Why I no longer talk to white people about race'
International
Worldwide capitalist crisis deepens - step up the fight for socialism
'Frozen conflict' reignites in Nagorno-Karabakh enclave
Germany: "Heroes" strike to demand a pay rise
Campaigns
£9,000 for education by Netflix
Leicester: Don't let them close our hospital
Waltham Forest: Council picks over 60 sites for mass gentrification
Say no to finance capital-backed luxury tower block in Enfield
Socialist Party: Campaigning for the NHS
Final total: £73,586 raised - now let's do it again
Defend Bracknell Community Services
Readers' opinion
Film: 'Sick' - 'They've got people looking in the wrong direction'
Home | The Socialist 7 October 2020 | Join the Socialist Party
Subscribe | Donate | Audio | PDF | ebook
2021