LATEST NEWS / MORE DEMO REPORTS & PICS

The latest report in The Herald shows quite clearly how we were lied to at the Public Meeting. The options for cuts and closure are already well thought out - and they are planning major cuts at EITHER Worthing or Chichester. In addition there is a serious threat to Southlands acute services. We say: defend ALL hospital services across Sussex and the UK!

The West Sussex Gazette carries this shocking news that cuts architect Steve Phoenix is leaving the Trust - announced 2 days after the rally!

Demo report and pics in the West Sussex Observer here
Like many reports the GMB union banner carried by Worthing Keep Our NHS Public supporters is prominent!

Report and pic in the weekly Socialist Worker paper here.

BBC report on the excellent Chichester demo.

Report and pics from the 1,000-strong Bognor demo a month ago.

1000s MARCH AGAINST HOSPITAL CUTS IN WORTHING

Last night saw a magnificent protest march of up to 10,000 people, marching from two ends of Worthing to demand the Government via its Strategic Health Authority makes no cuts to local NHS services - in particular, the insane threatened closure of Worthing and Southlands Hospitals. This being polite Worthing the march of course was routed down pavements not roads :0)


assembling behind the Aquarena

Hospital users from across Worthing, Lancing, Shoreham and surrounding areas were joined by large and lively contingents of hospital and health workers - many of whom had arrived in a feeder march from Worthing Hospital. Among the many banners were those belonging to workers' UNISON and GMB unions.



Worthing Keep Our NHS Public supporters handed out several thousand leaflets putting our case for a NHS fully in public hands and for no cuts whatever to health services across Sussex. The leaflets - kindly printed by the local GMB union branch - went like hot cakes and the message went down a storm with protesters, hundreds of whom also signed our Keep Our NHS Public petition/contact sheet.


The Aquarena end of the march stretched for over a mile down the seafront.


The demonstration - one of the biggest in the town's history - converged on the Pavilion Theatre for a public meeting, with The Steyne acting as an overspill for the thousands who couldn't get into the theatre to listen to the speeches and questions.

Hot Reception for Health Chiefs
The public meeting, chaired by the mayor Cllr Tom Wye, was a wonderfully angry and rowdy affair. It was addressed by Stretegic Health Authority Chief Exec Candy Morris and her sidekick Steve Phoenix, who repeatedly tried to justify service cuts or even possible hospital closures by waffling on about "moving care closer to the patient, even to their home" and insisting that "we" cannot ignore the financial problems with the area's budget (although "we" didnt create these problems of course). For this, they were heckled, booed and shouted down throughout the 2-and-a-half-hour meeting, with both of the cost-cutting suits looking visibly shaken by the end. Morris resorted to patronising audience speakers which got her into even more trouble.


Local Tory MPs Tim Loughton & Peter Bottomley also spoke, with Loughton in particular drawing large applause with a speech pledging total opposition to any hospital closures across Sussex. For those of us with a trade union and labour movement background it was strange to be agreeing with virtually everything a Tory MP has to say - Loughton's speech was remarkably "old Labour" in tone. While the MPs have led the way in setting up the KWASH campaign, we still remember the terrible damage done to the NHS by the previous Tory government, so you'll forgive a little cynicism on our part. It's clear that any MP who doesnt fully support such campaigns risks losing their seat at the next election.

A campaign for us all
The point Worthing Keep Our NHS Public are making on this issue is that KWASH must be representative of the hospital workforce and patients who came out in such force yesterday. Consultants, nurses and other health workers and many grateful patients all spoke brilliantly and movingly at the public meeting outlining just why it would be madness to not have a general hospital with A&E in a town of more than 100,000 people. For the old, the poor, and the disabled the so-called option of care in the home or having to travel to Brighton or Chichester is a total non-starter - it would be a disaster leading to many deaths.


the western, George V Avenue branch of the march arrives


Following a question from one of our number, KWASH confirmed they will be setting up a "steering group" to run the campaign which will look to include health workers, service users "and all interested parties". We trust this will be a meaningful promise - this campaign must be accountable and open to all. Writing to MPs, signing petitions and writing to the SHA is unlikely to be enough to stop the cost-cutters' attacks. We need a lively angry and huge campaign that will really get the message across to Tony Blair and his (invited but absent) Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt.

Don't Spend Money on War and Death - Spend it on the NHS
Speakers contrasting the billions spent on bombing innocent people with the penny-pinching life-threatening proposed NHS cuts taking place across the UK drew huge cheers, as did the many who pointed out that Government ministers and their hired guns like Morris and Phoenix can afford and do always go private - they dont care about a free public health service.

The SHA are looking for savings of £100 MILLION - which would represent huge cuts. The feeling of the meeting was clear - Candy Morris should go back to her masters and insist that the money is found from central Government funds.

Where Next?
Morris & Phoenix claimed they would have some rough outline ideas/proposals to put to the public within "3 to 4 weeks", and that these would be fully firmed up and costed by October. We must keep up the pressure by any means necessary. More meetings and protests must be organised as a matter of urgency. Watch this space for more news on KWASH and on Worthing Keep Our NHS Public activities.

Further Reports

See the Argus newspaper's report here

See the BBC Southern Counties report (with a decent crowd pic) here

For a report on the huge march by our counterparts in Chichester last week, go here

SAVE WORTHING & SOUTHLANDS HOSPITALS - MARCH TOMORROW!

The Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospitals campaign is holding a rally and public meeting on Wednesday 2 August.

There will be 2 marches along the seafront - one from the east (meeting behind the Aquaarena) and one from the west (meeting at the bottom of George V Avenue).
These will start at 6pm and converge on the Pavilion Theatre where there will be a public meeting beginning at 7pm.

The Worthing Keep Our NHS Public contingent will meet at the Aquarena meeting point - look out for Worthing Hospital staff, trade union banners and placards and Worthing KONHSP leafletters - see you there!

WORTHING KEEP OUR NHS PUBLIC GROUP LAUNCHED

Worthing Keep Our NHS Public is a group of local health workers, trade unionists and patients concerned about the threatened cuts and even possible closure of Worthing and Southlands Hospitals. Any such action would be a scandalous attack on vital public services.

We are also however concerned at the scale of threatened NHS cuts across Sussex and the whole South East/South Coast region, including by not only hospitals in Chichester, Eastbourne, Hastings, Brighton and Crawley.

We will be working as part of the KWASH campaign set up by local MPs, and we want to ensure that health workers and professionals and service users are actively involved in that campaign, and that KWASH actions send the strongest possible message to the Government that we will accept no cuts of any sort to our health services in Sussex.

This is the text of a leaflet we'll be handing out at tomorrow's demo...


Save Our Hospitals! No Cuts,No Closures, No Sell-offs

We call on the MPs and everyone at today’s march public meeting to agree:

A vote of thanks for the excellent organising work done so far by MPs and others but that the Keep Worthing & Southland Hospitals ['KWASH'] campaign should now be opened up for transparent & democratic decision-making around next steps through regular campaign steering group meetings open to health workers, patients and service users in Worthing and surrounding area.

Strong support for public services in every area. KWASH should declare in favour of supporting ALL hospitals under attack and not arguing that a local resource in Worthing is more important than at Chichester or anywhere else. We should be inviting people from campaigns across Sussex to attend KWASH meetings and vice versa.

That we reject any call for PFI [Private Finance Initiatives] as the only alternative way to develop or maintain good NHS services – we want publicly run and maintained services and not hospitals belonging to a private company and run with our tax money on the basis of profit for that company! There is public money for warfare and layer upon layer of management and bureaucracy – let’s plough that money into world class publicly-owned and run NHS services instead.

That the campaign is an active, lively and inclusive one!
We should set up regular information stalls and publicity stunts to be run in all parts of Worthing Hospital’s catchment area and around the hospital itself to make sure everyone locally is aware of the current situation and is able to get involved in both proposing ideas and helping run support activities.