THE TORY government never really bothered to make a secret of their intention to close thousands of beds in London's hospitals.
Instead they have relied on Labour's ineptitude and one-sided press coverage to keep it from the headlines as the drive towards the new market system proceeded.
Last autumn Health Secretary Waldegrave set up the Tomiinson inquiry, with a dual brief: to draw up a hit list help stave off any embarrassingly large closures until after the elecBon.
Autumn
Tomlinson's report is now due in the autumn, but already many health autorities which buy services from inner-London hospitals have jumped the gun and begun to send their patients elsewhere, triggering the current crisis.
The key issue here is the Tories' new NHS market system, which has taken the place of any attempt at regional or national planning of While most people saw only the unpopular proposals for hosptals to June 13, 1992 No. 23 I'm not Dr Jekyll - I'm Mr Hyde the accountant' opt out, the core of Thatcher's NHS Act was the etablishment of this new competitive 'market", which was certain to put London's hospitals at a disadvantage.
• All of London's hospitals are saddled with inflated site valuations reflecting the 1980s property boom: as a result they must now pay higher capital charges under the new system. Worst-hit are the inner-London teaching hospitals.
• Inner London also loses out most heavily from the costs of London weighting payments for nursing and other staff - all of which hel inflate the prices hospitals must • And the teaching hosprals carry additional costs as a result of their higher levels of medical staling and the increased numbers of more complex cases they have to handle, as well as research work. The irony is that London's teaching hospitals are far from lying lole: they are as busy as almost any hospital in the country. treating a massive 49% more patients in 1990 than they had been planned to receive. On current levels of activity, the closure of the 2,000 beds that are expected to tall under Tominson's axe would lead to the loss of up to 100,000 operations a year, and as many as Targets With either the UCH or Middiesex Hospital already certain to close as a result of the Bloomsbury cash crisis, the front-line targets for closure seem to be haring Cross Hospital, and St Thomas's, which sits on the most valuable hospital site in London, valued at E150 milA conspicuous and scandalous silence in these proceedings is likely to come trom the Labour Party. Shadow health secretary Robin Cook supports the Tory view that London's NHS is 'over-bedded' and that there is a need for closures.
Throughout the election campaign, Cook and the Labour team refused to fight the Tory closure plans or to challenge the Tomlinson inguiry, allowing the Tories to sidetrack the whole NHS issue into the diversionary war of Jennifer's ear.
Waiting lists
130,000 Londoners on NHS wating lists are not likety to agree with Cook or Bottomley that there is a surplus of hospital beds in London.
And with rows breaking out over prices for treatment between health autority purchasers and hospital providers throughout London and the home counties, there is no prospect of stabilty emerging wom whe rory shake-ud The fight is on to prevent London becoming, in the words of COHSE's London regional secretary Pete Marshall, a 'hospital-free zone".
Socialists must work to ink up hospital unions, local organisations. pensioners groups and heath campaigns to ensure the Tory blitz is beaten back.
The new management techniques Home News