10,000 angry protestors took to the streets of the small Worcestershire town of Kidderminster on March 21 to oppose the threatened closure of their general hospital.
The turn-out was boosted by an energetic campaign headed by the local press, which had earlier attracted 66,000 signatures on a protest pirition to Worcestershire Health Authority. Just a few days earlier a massive turn-out of 1,300 opponents of the closure packed a Health Authority public meeting in Kidderminster Health Authority plans would close all but 30 of the local hospital's 300 beds, leaving what managers cynically describe as an "innovative ambulatory care centre" - in other words clinics dealing with only minor injuries and day surgery, with a handful of beds for frail elderly patients. Those with more serious health problems would have to travel a minimum of 17 miles across poor roads to the nearest hospital. With plans like this, and controversial schemes to "rationalise" services in Hertfordshire, Kent and Essex triggering massive opposition, the Labour government seems set on a collision course with defenders of the NHS.
Gordon Brown's feeble budget gesture, handing an "extra" €500m to an NHS facing end of year debts in excess of £600m, falls far short of what is needed. Labour's first two years in office have so far yielded NHS cash increases below the average over 18 years of Tory rule. With less cash, fewer beds, and fewer hospitals available, there is little scope for any magic solution to the crisis in the NHS created by Tory cuts - and worsened by AN OUTBREAK of strikes and local protests is sweeping through hospital in France, as spending cuts, rationalisation and staff shortages lead to cuts in services. There have been strikes affecting general and geriatric hospitals in Paris and in Clermont Ferrand, while hundreds of health workers have ioined trade union-backed demonstrations against cuts in Thionville (Moselle) and Dinan. In Moselle, thousands of voters took the opportunity to "write in" their support for local hospital services on their ballot papers in the local