Wendy Savage was attempting to make the NHS a bit more responsive to the users, in this case women; she was fighting for better services and for a decrease in the use of high technology in births where the women did not particularly want it (when they did, they got it) and that is what choice is all about. She is also the only consultant at the London Hospital who does not have any private practice.
She is not a radical left wing socialist. But she is a strong and vocal campaigner for women's rights in health care. In his opening remarks the DHA barrister said this case is not about "a male establishment and a women orientated movement." But, that is exactly what it is about.
Wendy Savage's case is by nOW fairly well known. It revolves around five chosen cases where the health authority, the puppet for the powerful Prof. Grudzinkas, charged Wendy Savage with incompetence. Her sup porters, including some eminent obstetricians, say that any doctor could be charged similarly with five specifically chosen cases.
The way in which this case has been handled highlights the gross deficiencies in the way the medical side of the NHS is run and administered. It is the result of the worst of the web of the "old boys" network which Consultants are so good at weaving.
WIN
The row is really not about Wendy Savage: it is about Community Obstetrics and giving women a choice in birth methods. Before Wendy Savage, Peter Huntingford fought the same battle arguing for and practicing community obstetrics. He was not suspended or sacked - he resigned. Savage took up the fight and is now in the ring defending both her own professional reputation and also a service whch Tower Hamlets women are demanding is kept and expanded
Tower Hamlets is one of the most deprived born the country. Housing conditions unemployment is about 16%. The health services have suffered severe cuts administered by the usual group of white males who either live in the leafy glades of Essex or in the posh new developments in Docklands. They do not bear the consequences of the cuts they make. The infant morWHY have women's organisations not combined to build a campaign demanding adequate provision of cervical