One thousand marching in Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire. Thousands of demonstrators at Worthing and Southlands, Sussex, linking hands around two hospitals under threat.
Around 1,000 people attended a rally and march through Huntingdon last Saturday to protest against attempts to impose drastic cuts on the local hospital. The government’s free market policies have left Huntingdon’s Hinchingbrooke hospital with debts of over £24 million.
The Amicus union is preparing a strike ballot among workers in the NHS blood service to prevent the threatened closure of 14 blood centres. The plans follow two 24-hour strikes in NHS Logistics (see page 5).
The first national strike in the NHS for 17 years began on Thursday of last week. Unison union members at five depots of NHS Logistics - the not for profit agency that supplies hospitals across England - struck for 24 hours in a battle against privatisation.
"Hundreds of Unison members in NHS Logistics have taken part in a national strike to oppose the sell-off of essential public services to DHL - a German parcel courier.
The scale of the NHS Logistics privatisation reflects Labour’s wider ambitions to entrench the market in the health service. These plans are driving the NHS into crisis.
Some 50 health workers and members of the public lobbied the health scrutiny committee of Waltham Forest council in east London on Thursday of last week to oppose drastic cuts in health services.
Workers who supply hospitals across England were set to strike this week as part of their battle against privatisation. It will be the first national strike in the NHS for 18 years.
The first national strike in the health service for 18 years began on Thursday evening. The 24-hour strike by 1,000 members of the Unison union at NHS Logistics saw low paid workers in direct confrontation with New Labour’s privatisation policies.
