If street protests can stop hospital closures, get your banners painted now

Plans to shut down Lewisham's A&E and maternity units sparked protests in 2013 [Image: Telegraph].

Plans to shut down Lewisham’s A&E and maternity units sparked protests in 2013 [Image: Telegraph].

There is nothing “sustainable” about the Tory “transformation plans” for the National Health Service.

A commenter on This Blog’s Facebook page made this excellent point yesterday:

So what’s the Tory solution to overstretched A&Es in two Shropshire hospitals? Shut one of them down!

“Currently both of these hospitals are understaffed, underfunded and overstretched. If only one is kept open, most patients from the other area will have a minimum of an extra 20 minutes on their ambulance journey.

“Patients will die en route and the remaining A&E department will be even more overstretched and fail.

“Cynical, even sociopathic!”

Exactly right.

The Tory way of fixing the health service would choke it up completely and make it impossible for people to get treatment in a reasonable manner within a reasonable time period.

Jeremy Hunt, Theresa May and their cronies need to be stopped.

If that can be achieved by taking to the streets for a couple of hours, it is a tiny price to pay to keep a service that could save your life at some point in the future.

Hospital closures planned to shore up NHS finances could be derailed if enough people take to the streets in protest, a health service chief has said.

Chris Hopson, leader of England’s hospitals sector, said public unrest and opposition by local MPs could scupper so-called Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs), which are billed as crucial to the long-term viability of the health service.

On Monday the respected think tank The King’s Fund heavily criticised health bosses for trying to organise the sweeping closure of hospitals and NHS units in secret, moves which it said could put lives at risk.

Source: Street protests could halt hospital closures – NHS boss

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One Comment

  1. Barry Davies November 17, 2016 at 7:01 pm - Reply

    We know that the care in the community has failed for LD and MH care, so why on earth would medical care work, there are not enough GP’s to cope with any extra work which would have to be taken on with the reduction of hospital facilities, and with an ever increasing population the need is going to grow not fall.

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