{"id":1201,"date":"2018-02-15T10:11:07","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T10:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ealingsaveournhs.org.uk\/?p=1201"},"modified":"2018-03-08T10:40:42","modified_gmt":"2018-03-08T10:40:42","slug":"a-very-lively-public-meeting-in-ealing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ealingsaveournhs.org.uk\/?p=1201","title":{"rendered":"A Very Lively Public Meeting in Ealing"},"content":{"rendered":"
There was anger and cheers at the Ealing Save Our NHS public meeting last Tuesday. The room in Ealing Town only seated 150 \u2013 another 50 people had to stand around the sides and at the back.\u00a0 John Lister<\/strong> set the tone by describing how ridiculous claims were being made to justify bed cuts and A&E closures.<\/div>\n
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Private management consultants were being paid millions of pounds to write reports that didn\u2019t stand up.\u00a0 Tens of millions of our NHS money was paid to finance companies for PFI hospitals \u2013 huge interest payments that were totally unnecessary.<\/div>\n
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As well as being a respected researcher on health policy, John is a veteran campaigner and national Secretary of Keep Our NHS Public. \u00a0\u00a0ACPs or Accountable Care Organisations are the latest Government plan for running, commissioning and privatising our NHS. \u201cThey are unaccountable\u201d said John, \u201cThey don\u2019t care and they don\u2019t organise properly.\u201d<\/u><\/u><\/div>\n
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Hospital consultant Gurjinder Sandhu<\/strong> held the room spellbound as he described the pressures faced by staff. He vividly described patients who needed looking after, while staff had to put up with constant undermining by managers in various ways. More ambulances are being diverted to Ealing A&E than any other in London, but staff are told Ealing A&E can be closed under their cuts plans.<\/div>\n
The people in the room were loud in their appreciation of Gurjinder and junior hospital Doctor Aislinn Macklin-Doherty<\/strong> as well as all the other NHS staff.\u00a0 The pressures on hospital staff described by Gurjinder were radicalising junior doctors, Aislinn explained.\u00a0 Doctors who had once been of a conservative persuasion were demonstrating and even striking.<\/u><\/u><\/div>\n
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Local Labour MP Rupa Huq<\/strong> talked about her support for the campaign to save Ealing Hospital and promised that her party would put a moratorium on all NHS cuts.<\/u><\/u><\/div>\n
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Eve Turner<\/strong> was an animated chairperson.\u00a0 She thanked the local council for defying the Government over hospital cuts.\u00a0 She told the meeting that local Health bosses planned to put Ealing \u00a0NHS community services out to tender in a single ten year contract, worth something like a billion pounds of our NHS money.\u00a0 The contract could be won by a private company, or by a part of the NHS forced to compete with other sections of the NHS.\u00a0<\/u><\/u><\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/a>There were lively questions from the floor.\u00a0 At the end of the meeting dozens of us joined together for a photoshoot in support of migrant NHS workers.\u00a0 We held up posters saying \u201cWe\u2019re PROUD of our Migrant NHS workers<\/strong>\u201d. Because we are.\u00a0 With all the pressures facing the NHS, one of the nastier policies followed by the government is to pretend that the problems are caused by migrants, both patients and staff.\u00a0 We are in solidarity with all NHS staff and we demand the NHS carries on being for all who need it, not for those with money, or those who are deemed worthy of care.<\/u><\/u><\/div>\n
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Our answer to divide and rule is solidarity.<\/div>\n
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