NHS forced to shut services amid fascist threat

Anti Nazi League supporters and NHS workers outside Charing Cross Hospital in 1992 (Photo: Tehmina Boman)

A wave of planned fascist attacks across Britain this week has forced the NHS to shut some of its services. This will deny care to some of the poorest and most vulnerable people.

Inspired by a week of racist rioting, far right organisers this week issued a list of targets in all parts of Britain.

Many on the hit list are immigration lawyers and asylum services based in city centres. As a result, health centres and local shops have closed because of fears of violence against patients and staff.

Andrea, a mental health worker from Sheffield, told Socialist Worker that bosses have instructed her and her colleagues to finish work early and cancel all appointments.

The effect on patients is “terrible”, she said, adding that staff are “furious” with the Nazi demos.

“Everything is being closed down because of these racist gangs,” she said. “I work with people with eating disorders and have spent the morning ringing my patients to cancel their appointments.

“A lot of those people were scared to come into the centre because of the Nazis.

“And we are not the only team affected by the closure. Health workers for the homeless have also been forced to close their offices.”

Andrea says there is a mood of anger at work.

“We understand the need for safety at work and for our patients, but we can’t let these racists dictate what NHS services we can run.”

In Walthamstow, east London, doctors’ surgeries more than a mile away from the solicitors on the Nazi hit list say they will close early.

London doctors’ group, the LMC, say, “We do not know for certain if this unrest is going to impact on our London practices, but would strongly advise practices to consider what actions they may need to take if these incidents were to spread to your area.”

The lawyers’ office has been boarded up against possible attack and police have told local pubs and gyms they must close.

The racist threat to health workers is real. Racist rioters in Sunderland last weekend attacked taxis carrying Filipino nurses to work in a local hospital.

“They were in two different taxis and had been called in because of the trouble as emergency cover,” a source told the Mirror newspaper. “They managed to get through but they were obviously fearful about what might happen to them.”

Salford, Greater Manchester, also saw its NHS forced into lock-down on Tuesday after Nazis threatened to ransack the city centre.

Andrea says that many health workers are so angry with racists that they want to act.

“I’ve got colleagues from work saying they will come to a planned protest against the Nazis on Saturday, in Sheffield,” she said.

“We can’t let the racists win”.

She is right. The violent threat to health workers and the NHS is a further sign of how the far right stands against working class people—and the services they depend on.