NHS and health

Once again, it's more money for the banks, and more people to the food banks. From 2015, if you lose your job, it will be at least seven days until you can get JSA. That will not bother you if you are someone like George Entwhistle, who got an £800,000 pay-off when he resigned after just 54 days as director-general of the BBC. If you are low-paid, or you are on a zero-hours contract and got no pay at all last week, it will. In his spending review on 26 June, George Osborne also tightened the squeeze on lone parents and vowed to abolish public service workers' automatic or semi-automatic annual...

At the G8 summit in Northern Ireland on 17-18 June, a start was announced for talks on a free trade deal between the USA and the European Union. The talks will take two years at least, and may not produce a deal. They were able even to start only because a fudge was devised on France’s demands to have its “cultural exception” (measures which protect, for example, French film production) declared off-limits. Campaigners in Britain have been demanding that the NHS be declared equally off-limits. Otherwise future restoration of public service in health, in place of the market allocation the...

A workplace bulletin by Lewisham Hospital workers, for Lewisham Hospital workers. Click here to download the PDF.

Unite in Yorkshire Ambulance Service have called off a strike scheduled for 22 June. Members have been told that, following discussion with the Trust and ACAS, there are a "series of actions planned to resolve the dispute." The dispute is about a new workforce plan which includes "downbanding" (i.e., moving down the pay scale) of a section of front line workers, and the derecognition of Unite following their opposition to this plan. The suspension of the strike may be informed by the relatively weak support for a previous strike on 7 June. Despite a good press profile for the dispute, Unite...

A bulletin by AWL members in Unison, looking at some of the key issues for union members at its upcoming conferences. Click here to download the PDF.

A workplace bulletin for Lewisham Hospital workers, by Lewisham Hospital workers. Click here to download the PDF.

A workplace bulletin by Lewisham Hospital workers, for Lewisham Hospital workers. Click here to download the PDF.

Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health, attended a Q&A event at the University in Guildford on the Friday 24 May. A strong group of activists from Guildford Keep Our NHS Public, local students and regional GMB were there to greet him with placards, union flags and pro-NHS/anti-Tory slogans. The University after being unable to move us out of the building policed the door of the room, stating that only University of Surrey students would be permitted to participate. Nevertheless, during the Q&A event, Hunt encountered hard hitting questions about the NHS from students, some of whom...

Between January and March this year, the NHS had to cancel 220 operations a day because it had run out of hospital beds. A&E waiting times are at their worst level for nine years. A King’s Fund report says in the first three months of this year, 310,000 patients waited more than four hours in A&E — 39% more than in 2012. A report by regulator Monitor showed evidence of deteriorating standards for cancer care, infection control and non-emergency operations. The government response to the A&E crisis has been to blame New Labour’s “disastrous legacy”. Jeremy Hunt claims — against all the evidence...

A workplace bulletin by Lewisham Hospital workers, for Lewisham Hospital workers. Click to download the PDF.