Build TUC demo November 20 'TOO LITTLE, too late' has been the response of many health union activists to the TUC call for a national demonstrtion in defence of the NHS on November 20. UNISON strikers at London's threatened UCH hospital led the way this summer There is no doubt that the TUC has dragged its feet on mobilising the huge potential opposition to the Tory government's attacks on the NHS.
Thousands of jobs, including nursing and key support staff, have been axed in hospitais across the country. In Warwickshire alone, three Trusts -South Warwickshire, Coventry & Warwick, and Nuneaton are axing 700 jobs this year, while health unions have done little or nothing to build resistance.
Services have been decimated by the effects of the new 'internal market system in the NHS. In one sense the TUC demonstration comes at an especially sharp point in the growing crisis.
As the autumn leaves are turning red, so are the figures on the balance sheets of NHS Trusts, and the faces of managers struggling for survival, while there is just not enough money to sustain services.
23 hospitals in London face closure in the medium term, including five nationally-known teaching hospitals. Upwards of 20,000 jobs are at stake. Two hospitals alone -Guy's and St Thomas's -have already unveiled plans to axe a third of their staff, 2,000 posts, in the next few years, as they struggle to save £75m.
UNISON SA