The Socialist 20 February 2019

Tories out, Blairites out

Nationalise Airbus and other manufacturing plants to save jobs now!

NHS crisis deepens: Workers' and community action can save our health service

What we heard

What we saw

"There's no planet B": Thousands of youth strike against climate change - we need socialist change!

Youth strike for the climate reports: "There's no planet B"

TV: Les Misérables - Hugo's novel and this adaptation both offer a message of hope

The Socialist Inbox

Eight Blairites split - Now kick out the rest

PCS Left Unity must unite on pay and elections

Universal Credit staff ballot for action

Annoyed?! I'm annoyed to be on poverty wages

Nationalise to save jobs at Honda!

Birmingham bin strike against 'blacklisting'

Deliveroo riders strike against exploitative pay and conditions

Leicester college pay strike goes on

Cardiff Uni: urgent action needed to stop job cuts

Hackney: Unite fights racism and victimisation

Harrowing accounts of austerity at Unison women's conference

Unite GLL pay campaign

Spanish state: social polarisation and budget defeat force snap election

Unite union London council workers back Enfield Labour no-cuts call

Leeds TUC presents a no-cuts alternative budget

Socialist Students conference shows potential for fighting leadership

London housing campaigners disrupt auction

Birmingham Uni: Standing up to racism is not harassment!

Leicester Socialists stand against Blairite mayor

Lincoln students back UCU ballot

Leicestershire needs NHS beds

Claimants and union slam Universal Credit

Energy retail firm collapse hits Tyneside

New recession fear stalks the world economy

PO Box 1398, Enfield EN1 9GT

020 8988 8777

[email protected]

Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1030/28714

Search the site	Printable version

Home | The Socialist 20 February 2019 | Join the Socialist Party

Subscribe | Donate | Audio | PDF | ebook

NHS crisis deepens: Workers' and community action can save our health service

Marching to save the NHS, photo by Mary Finch (Click to enlarge)

Matt, NHS Nurse

The news that A&E waiting times have hit the worst level since records began is yet further proof of the ongoing crisis in our NHS.

Despite a milder winter, less norovirus and fewer recorded flu cases, NHS trusts have dipped below 85% of patients being seen - then admitted or discharged - within four hours. The figure gets worse in 'Type 1 centres' (24-hour A&E departments) with nearly one in four failing to meet the four-hour target.

Chronic underfunding, crisis levels of staffing and privatisation have created a toxic cocktail of disaster for patients and staff within the NHS.

The brutal robbery of funding from local councils by the Tory government has seen social care budgets slashed, with patients remaining in hospital awaiting care packages. This results in hospital beds being filled by patients who do not require acute hospital care, creating a backlog that sees patients left on stretchers strewn across A&E corridors up and down the country.

Councils have a duty to fight the cuts and defend the most vulnerable in society. The Socialist Party calls for councils to set no-cuts budgets, while fighting to build a mass struggle to win the necessary funding from government.

The NHS, despite the underfunding and the problems that causes, remains a jewel in the crown of the British working class. Fought for by previous generations of workers, the NHS wasn't handed to us by the ruling class but was hard won through struggle.

Since its formation in 1948 the Tories and their friends and backers in the capitalist class have sought to undermine its existence - committed instead to a profit-driven, exclusive private healthcare model. But as Nye Bevan, architect of the NHS, famously said: "The NHS will last as long as there are folk with the faith to fight for it".

Successes

On a local level we've seen successful campaigns in recent years, such as saving from closure Glenfield heart unit in Leicester and Chatsworth rehabilitation unit in Mansfield.

Also, trade unionists taking industrial action have stopped the introduction of a 'wholly owned subsidiary' - ie privatisation - in Mid Yorks NHS trust; Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS trust; and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS trust.

Socialist Party members have played important roles in these campaigns.

Despite these incredible victories at a local level, the national trade union leaderships have been deafeningly quiet on the issue of taking action over the NHS crisis. Yet the 2015-16 junior doctors' strikes showed the strength of public support for the NHS and its staff.

A coordinated campaign of action - including strikes - from the health trade unions, together with a national demonstration along with community campaigns to demand increased funding for the NHS and scrapping privatisation; and a call for a general election to return a Corbyn-led Labour government committed to socialist policies, could give a huge confidence boost to both NHS workers and patients, and begin to tackle the crisis in our health service.

In this issue

News

Nationalise Airbus and other manufacturing plants to save jobs now!