NHS and health

A workplace bulletin by Lewisham Hospital workers, for Lewisham Hospital workers. Click here to download the PDF.

A bulletin for the strike of Unite members working for the Yorkshire Ambulance Service on 2 April. Click here to download the bulletin as a PDF.

Since the start of the year hundreds of thousands of people have mobilised around the country to save the NHS. • On 16 March 5,000 people marched through the streets of Islington to stop cuts — loss of 230 beds and 570 jobs — at the Whittington Hospital. • On the same day hundreds of protesters gathered outside Lewisham Hospital to oppose the downgrading of the emergency and maternity services — cuts that threaten the long-term future of the hospital. • On 26 January 25,000 people marched through Lewisham. That did not stop Tory Health Minister Jeremy Hunt from approving the plan to downgrade...

A workplace bulletin by and for workers at Lewisham Hospital. Click here to download the PDF.

The government is continuing its attempts to formally privatise the National Health Service by stealth. It was forced into a climb-down on implementing Section 75 of the 2012 Health and Social Care Act, which would have forced “commissioners” to open up every aspect of healthcare provision to tender by private companies. But widespread opposition, including from Labour MPs, forced the government to redraft the law. But the new version, due to come into force on 1 April, is described by the Save Lewisham Hospital campaign as “the same wrecking ideas spruced up, cowardly repackaged.” Shadow...

A workplace bulletin for workers at Lewisham Hospital. Click here to download the PDF.

On 16 March, thousands will demonstrate in North London in defence of Whittington Hospital. Following a successful public meeting attended by 500 people, campaigners from the Defend Whittington Hospital Coalition have been building for the march, which will begin at Highbury Corner and end at the hospital. On 28 February, 150 campaigners demonstrated at a hospital board meeting, demanding the planned cuts and sell-off be scrapped. They marched through the hospital canteen and were cheered by health workers. The Whittington Hospital board are seeking Foundation Trust status. In the past, Dr Koh...

A workplace bulletin for Lewisham Hospital workers, by Lewisham Hospital workers. Click here to download the PDF.

A workplace bulletin for workers at Lewisham Hospital. Click here to download the PDF.

London hospitals are failing patients who need emergency care, according to a just-published NHS audit (researched undertaken in 2011). According to the audit none of London’s 28 Hospital Trusts are meeting minimum standards. The report is published as an inquest takes place into the death of seven week old Axel Peanberg King who died of pneumonia despite calls and visits to a privatised out-of-hours GP service based at the Whittington Hospital in north London. The current wave of government-driven initiatives and “shake ups” in London’s NHS are certain to make a bad situation worse. The...