Bill threat to our NHS

Published: 6 May, 2011

• ANGELA Sinclair-Loutit is absolutely right in saying that the Health and Social Care Bill requires “swift action in mass public protest” as we face the prospect of our NHS being decimated and privatised (NHS on danger list, April 29).

Campaigning organisations are fighting the bill, including NHS Support Federation and Keep Our NHS Public. On Tuesday, May 17, Keep Our NHS Public is co-ordinating a London-wide Kill the Bill! mass protest, assembling at UCL, in Gower Street, at 5.30pm and marching to the Department of Health in Whitehall. Individuals are encouraged to support these campaigns if they want to continue to see a health service free at the point of need.

Defend Whittington Hospital Coalition (DWHC) is holding a public meeting at Archway Methodist Hall, in Archway Close, on Thursday at 7pm. The meeting will debate what the bill may mean and how a campaign can be established to increase public awareness.

The meeting will be chaired by Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn, with speakers Islington South MP Emily Thornberry, Shadow Care Services Minister Jacky Davis and Austin Harney, Public and Commercial Services Union rep at the Office of the Public Guardian. A Whittington Hospital consultant will also speak. 

Jason Roberts, governor of Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust (Mental Health), and Shirley Franklin, chair of DWHC, will speak on health’s poorest relation, mental health. Unfortunately, people with mental health diagnoses are disproportionally affected by NHS cuts, at a time when the need for mental health support has never been greater, as the full impact of mass job losses begins to reverberate.

Please come to the meeting, join the demonstration and campaign by getting involved in this critical fightback, on which the survival of our precious NHS may depend.

JEM LINDON
Defend the Whittington Hospital Coalition www.dwhc.org.uk