BITTER struggles are developing to defend hospital services against the impact of the Tory government's market reforms.
• IN BIRMINGHAM, health workers and campaigners are opposing a £7.5m cuts package that would close the Accident Hospital and the Royal Orthopaedic and axe 600 jobs • IN DOWNPATRICK in the six counties of Ireland, a massive 20,000strong demonstration - equivalent to millions in London - showed the scale of opposition to the closure of rural hospital services as part of a £12 million cuts package by the Eastern Board.
• IN LONDON, despite a grim silence from Labour, health unions are taking the lead in fighting leaked government plans to close four teaching hospitals and thousands more beds, as the capital's NHS goes bankrupt in the 'internal market.
Hit list
In October the government will publish the findings of the Tomlinson Inquiry into London's NHS, which was set up a year ago to propose a hit list of hospital closures.
According to the latest leaks in the Evening Standard, Professor Tomlinson will propose the closure of:
• St Thomas's Hospital • Charing Cross Hospital University College Hospital Parts Hospital report is also likely to recommend theclosure or merger of additional specialist hospitals such as the Royal Marsden and Moorfields.
In all, these proposals would axe around 2,500 beds, handling at least 125,000 in-patients a year - more than 10 percent of the present London caseload.
Thousands of health service jobs would also be axed, adding new misery to the wave of redundancies that has already sweptaway over 1,000 Nor will the cuts stop at inner London. Tomlinson is reported to be proposing a total of 3,000-5,000 bed closures. As Health Minister Brian Mawhinney said recently:
"No hospital is safe, no matter what their size. Some of the big hospitals are in for a shock ... and any smaller hospitals who may be hiding away thinking they have been missed have not been forgotten."
With 130,000 people still on London's growing waiting lists, there is little evidence that that capital is 'over-bedded'.
There is no time to lose if these plans are to be fought.
The common demands must include an immediate end to the brutal 'market' system, an immediate £1 billion injection for the NHS, and the abolition of opted-out Trust Boards, returning Trusts to direct management.
BMA surrender
The possibilities of a fightback are clear. Though the BMA has publicly thrown in the towel in London, refusing in advance to fight in defence of up to 700 consultant posts and countless junior doctors, health trade unions have already shown their readiness to fight back.
A successful London-wide demonstration in August was jointly called by the UNISON unions, COHSÉ, NUPE and NALGO, following local strikes over jobs.
• Technicians' union MSF has also staged strikes and protests against cuts and redundancies.
local campa i pensioners' gn s groups and community organisations have also been at the forefront of resistance to attacks on services.
To link up the various organisations wanting to fight the London cutbacks, London Health Emergency has convened a meeting at Camden Town Hall on Tuesday November 10, starting at 7pm. No. 28 26 Sept, 1992