As I have been touring round the country speaking at meeting after meeting in many areas people have been attending from local health campaigns explaining what is happening on the ground to their local NHS.
The story is pretty bleak with cuts in staffing, reductions in hospital beds, and threatened closures of Accident and Emergency Departments, Maternity Units and mental health services.
Understandably this is causing real consternation amongst local communities
and is damaging morale amongst health workers.
The cuts stem friom the various strategic reviews instigated by the Government, the NHS funding formula and the various privatisations and outsourcing which are being forced through. This includes the diversion of NHS funds into expensive private treament centres.
The cuts have provoked protests around the country with local community led campaigns being set up often linking up nationally through the "Keep the NHS Public" and "London Health Emergency" campaigning organisations. Ironically even Cabinet Ministers have joined local protests from John Reid to Hazel Blears.
One of the common complaints raised with me at meetings is that these cuts are being rushed through without proper local community involvement or national consultations and without adequate thought for the long term consequences of the closures of local A and E, Maternity and mental health units or the staffing cuts.
For this reason and in response to the many appeals made to me at local meetings I have tabled yesterday in Parliament an Early Day Motion calling for a moratorium in the implementation of these cuts pending an independent review of the long term strategy for critical care services, the NHS funding formula and privatisation policies, fully involving health care staff and local communities.
This would give the Government and all of us the opportunity of looking again at the impact of these large scale cuts and to assess where these policies are leading to in terms of the long term future of the NHS.
I would urge everyone to press their Member of Parliament to sign this EDM so that we can press the Government to act. The EDM is number 655, entitled "Moratorium in Health Cuts."
I have also called an open meeting in Parliament on the NHS cuts to bring together local and national campaigning groups and trade unions to lobby MPs for the moratorium. The meeting is at 7pm on 27 February in the Wilson Room, Portcullis House, Westminster.
Come along to help press for action.
6 Comments:
Agree with your sentiments on this issue John.
I fear, however, that an independent review would not reach the necessary conclusions about the disaster which is private finance within the NHS.
What i believe is needed is increased campaigning by activists in the local community drawing in the public that are increasingly frustrated by these cuts. This should be linked with representatives in the Labour movement - most notibly yourself and your own campaign - highlighting at every opportunity the links with closures and cuts to private interest in the NHS.
Many important revelations about PFI bypass the corporate media, and few sources take these up - Private Eye being the most notable exception. These revelations often seem to defeat the initial arguments for PFI such as fair tendering, quality and value of these projects. This is aside from the moral objection of profiteering from the health service.
Good luck with the EDM John, and keep plugging away.
Mark, Worcester.
you are right about Private Eye; I noticed that as well. Some time ago The Guardian tv guide was asking to bring back Spitting Image wasn't it and it did seem to have an awareness raising role in beating Margaret Thatcher; it seems we again need to use the "artistic" parts of the media and political media to reach people who don't realise how bad the situation is although today's Mirror article on NHS blunders which have killed many people is good food for thought; shame it wasn't in the front pages.
Private Eye's'truth about MMR'special a few years back was also excellently researched by the way.
When the NHS cuts local to me (Wycombe) were originally mooted the then PPC who is a local and county cllr attended all the meetings and as well as voting for the cuts we don't want while the Tory MP pretended to wash his hands of it the Tories also couldn't even talk sensibly about cuts to the maternity unit (now gone to Stoke Mandeville) and special care cots ditto but kept making stupid jokes about mothers and babies apparently; think most of them are middle age men though that's no excuse.Fat lot of good they are at representing people if they are too embarrassed to even engage with these issues. The local press won't publish any dissenting views if you make any political points - I've tried - and the Tories are increased their support at the General election by saying the cuts were a New Labour policy and running the local Save the Hospital services pressure group. Those MPs such as Reid, Blears and Gareth Thomas who are behaving in an even more hypocritical way should resign their posts at once (and sign the EDM and actively campaign against the policy. Instead of wanting "to have their cake and eat it" as Jenny and Andrew Neil put it today they should a) stop being so spineless and b) realise that in Politics or anything really people will not go for the complicated explaination when the simple one is staring them in the face. And as for the MPS who are only now voicing their criticisms on Iraq: Wake up and smell the coffee......
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