NHS and health

Last week we reported the wildcat strike by workers at the “community owned” Ivy House pub in South London, members of the Bakers’ Union.

In this case “community owned” meant more “Big Society” than “workers’ control”.

Shortly after the last Solidarity went to press on Tuesday 2 October, the Ivy House workers, who had kept the pub shut down completely for three days, won completely. The union is recognised, zero hours contracts will be replaced by fixed hours ones, and the four sacked workers are reinstated with back pay until a disciplinary process has ended.

As the 70th birthday of the NHS approaches the government has tried to distract from its Brexit woes by hijacking the Leave campaign′s transparently fake ″£350 million a week for the NHS after Brexit″ claim.

On 19 April 1943, Swiss chemist Albert Hoffmann ingested a small dose of a chemical he had synthesised and experienced the world’s first LSD trip. His experience ushered in two decades of experimentation and clinical research into psychedelic drugs until it was cut short by prohibition in 1970.

Analysis by the Kings Fund has found that the NHS has among the lowest per capita numbers of doctors, nurses and hospital beds in the western world.

The figures, compiled from 21 countries by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development show that only Poland has fewer doctors and nurses than the UK, while only Canada, Denmark and Sweden have fewer hospital beds.

The UK has 2.8 doctors per 1,000 people, while Austria has 5.1 doctors per 1,000 of population. The UK has 7.9 nurses per 1,000 people, while Switzerland has 18 nurses per 1,000 people.

The unfolding scandal of the denial of health and social care to the now-aged children of the Windrush is a warning sign.
It shows the sharp end of government racism, and the immense store of racist malice that the British ruling class is capable of unleashing on any group of foreign-born people it chooses. It is the fruit of years of right wing demagogy, in the press and in government, against migrants.

However, it is only the tip of the iceberg — and unless the left and the labour movement rally to defeat the Tory government and Brexit, more is to come.

Unison members in the non-emergency patient transport service in Greater Manchester have voted to strike over low pay and disparity of terms and conditions between workers doing the same job.

Recent press reports have indicated a possible very bad pay deal arising from talks between NHS employers and the health unions: a 3% pay rise for this year, followed by two years of 1-2%, and losing a day’s annual leave. 

With inflation running at 3% we face three years of falling pay. And the GMB estimates health workers have already had a real terms pay cut of £2,000 in last seven years. The initial reaction from many NHS workers to these reports has been complete disdain.

On Saturday 3 February, Health Campaigns Together and the People’s Assembly organised a demonstration for the NHS in central London. Despite pouring rain, the march drew tens of thousands from all over the UK, including organised delegations of hospital workers, and local NHS campaign groups, such as Fighting 4 Life Lincolnshire, which is working to save emergency healthcare services in Grantham.

The share price of the outsourcing company Capita, after plunging on 30 January, has started recovering slightly as Solidarity goes to press. Capita has 73,000 employees, and enjoys contracts to run a vast and unwieldy range of public services, for which it has no special expertise, including in the NHS.

Hospitals across the country continue to buckle under the stress of winter-related conditions — persistent cold weather and a nasty strain of influenza. But the responsibility for this crisis must lie with the government.

Further evidence of the danger patients face this winter were highlighted by the increased ambulance response times for even the patients with the most serious conditions — those waiting with potential conditions such as heart attacks and strokes — for whom every minute is vital.