NHS and health

FOR a portrayal in miniature of the repulsive, tragic lunacy in which capitalist society ensnares humankind, you would be hard put to it to outdo the Mandy Allwood saga. Wonder-working science transforms an infertile woman into a marvel of fecundity. For reasons of her own, by accident or design, she ignores medical advice and becomes pregnant. not with one, but with eight embryos. She cannot possibly deliver any of her embryos alive. So her doctors tell her. For any of them to survive, six will have to be aborted. She doesn't listen to the medics. She listens instead to some inner voice of...

FOR a portrayal in miniature of the repulsive, tragic lunacy in which capitalist society ensnares humankind, you would be hard put to it to outdo the Mandy Allwood saga. Wonder-working science transforms an infertile woman into a marvel of fecundity. For reasons of her own, by accident or design, she ignores medical advice and becomes pregnant. not with one, but with eight embryos. She cannot possibly deliver any of her embryos alive. So her doctors tell her. For any of them to survive, six will have to be aborted. She doesn't listen to the medics. She listens instead to some inner voice of...

Around 40 people have set up camp outside Stafford Hospital in protest at plans to downgrade the services there. Accident and emergency, paediatrics and maternity ward are all set to be scrapped. If the changes go ahead, locals would be forced to travel all the way to Stoke or Wolverhampton in the event of a medical emergency. The protest was organised after it was discovered that two applications for a judicial review of the decision to downgrade the hospital had been rejected. The Support Stafford Hospital campaign plans on appealing against the decision, but have camped outside the hospital...

After just a single day’s strike over pay by workers local government, education, and the civil service, the press and the Tories are on the offensive against unions, highlighting the low turnouts in ballots, and pushing for new anti-union legislation. We are right to highlight the hypocrisy of these calls coming from a government elected by a minority of voters with low turnouts in many constituencies, but in our own movement, we cannot be complacent. We have to honestly assess how we are organising for action and how best it can win. Turnouts and getting strong “yes” votes for industrial...

Public sector union Unison has confirmed it will ballot its 300,000 health sector members from 28 August to 18 September for strikes against the “1% or increment” offer from the employers (which Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt believes is already too high!). Unite, GMB, and the Royal College of Midwives have also announced they will ballot for strikes. If the ballots return a yes vote, they create the potential for a coordinated mass strike on 28 September (the date Unison has announced for its next local government strike, and in which the other public-sector unions which struck on 10 July could...

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

The Royal College of Nursing backs industrial action. Click here to download PDF

Lifeworks is a Complex Cases Service drop in centre which currently supports over 70 people with complex mental health problems in the Cambridge district. Following a deeply flawed decision by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust to close the Lifeworks centre in a bid to ‘save’ money, taken behind the backs of those using it, a group of service users decided to occupy it. (We covered the struggle extensively: see here for our 7 May interview with the occupiers). After four months in occupation a legal agreement has been signed confirming the service will continue, as before...

On 3 July a parliamentary committee reported that “Female genital mutilation is an ongoing national scandal which is likely to have resulted in the preventable mutilation of thousands of girls to whom the state owed a duty of care”. There has long been law against doctors and parents who are party to mutilation of young girls’ genitals. But the committee still found a “growing prevalence of FGM”. Its recommendations include: • Failure to report female genital mutilation should be made a criminal offence if reporting of the practice does not increase in the next 12 months • Headteachers and...

Service users protesting at the closure of a mental health drop in centre have had a victory after four months in occupation. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust had previously tried to close the Lifeworks centre in favour of a countywide service, which would force all patients back to their GP and through a series of assessments without any support available. Management have agreed to keep the Lifeworks centre open for five years, with hospital transport for those that require it and the open clinic being open two days a week. The chairman of the county council's health...