Holly Johnston, NHS nurse
SOS NHS campaign coalition says:
- Emergency funding to NHS now
- A fully publicly owned NHS and guarantee free healthcare
- Pay staff properly
We organised over 100 events for our 26 February day of action. Our own event in Sheffield galvinised more public support and attracted more NHS staff into the cross-union health workers’ group that we formed last year.
The Tories’ Health and Care Bill does nothing to address the staffing crisis. It leaves the door wide open for further privatisation, and will cost lives, with closures of A&Es planned.
I was one of the speakers raising the need to stop the profiteering, for public ownership of the NHS, to fight against cuts and privatisation, and the reversal of outsourcing. This was all linked to the need for a fairer system, and the need for socialism.
Health and deprivation
The health of the nation is worsening, health inequalities and deprivation have increased, and, for the first time, life expectancy has decreased in England. The working class are disproportionately affected.
Frontline staff spoke about the conditions in the NHS, the effect on patient care, and how morale of staff is at rock bottom. Midwives talked about the staffing crises and how cuts have affected the service. We raised the need to link up all our struggles across the public sector, across unions, across campaigns – the working class together.
Some terms and conditions in the NHS are nothing to be moaned about, such as sick and holiday pay. We support colleagues in the private sector striking to return to in-house contracts.
However, we need to fight to keep the terms and conditions that we have as well. We must not be pitched against each other in our individual fights, but mobilise collectively.
We are asking people to join a union, become a fighting voice in that union, vote for anti-cuts candidates, and support struggle across our class. There is always enough money for war, but not to fund vital services. It is the big bosses that profit time and time again.
Now it is important that we continue to mobilise public and staff support for the NHS, and have solidarity with all those in struggle, so we can see the demands of the campaign carried through.
Leicester
At one end of a busy shopping precinct, Metro Bank, with assets of £7.4 billion, was celebrating opening a new branch. At the other end, 150 people were fighting for the NHS.
Metro Bank was calling on people to join their ‘banking revolution’. Socialist Party members say the only banking revolution we want is to nationalise and use the assets to fund the NHS and public services.
In Leicester, the government promised to put money into hospital reconfiguration. But the local campaign has criticised the proposals. These involve the closure of Leicester General Hospital, and fail to provide sufficient capacity and beds for the future. Even then, the exact funding level is now in doubt, since the government asked the local trust to look again at cheaper alternatives.
After an impromptu march around the city centre, Socialist Party member Steve Score, chair of Save our NHS Leicester, said: “Last year, Britain’s 117 billionaires increased their wealth by 22%. The money exists to properly fund the NHS and to pay all staff a proper pay rise, but it is in the hands of the super-rich. These protests should be the beginning of a campaign, led by national trade union action, to force the government to fund the NHS and stop privatisation.”
Heather Rawling
Kendal
Lines of people two or three deep thronged around our table to sign a petition against a proposed and deeply unpopular local hospital reorganisation. The day broke early to hang five banners on roadside furniture leading to Westmorland General Hospital demanding to keep our NHS public. Roads and thoroughfares leading up to our main venue in Kendal got saturated with A3 posters demanding to stop the privatisation of our NHS.
All four candidates standing for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) took to the megaphone to air our disgust at the government’s attempt to kill off the NHS. We are all standing on an anti-austerity and save our NHS platform. It was a very good launch to our campaign for the local elections.
