Barts: start talking
THE LARGEST NHS trust in Britain is blundering towards the precipice of bankruptcy – flawed from the inception of the Barts PFI deal, delivered under the last Labour government.
Health
Health
Cancer care in Britain needs improving
3 April 2015
Britain lags behind in cancer treatment according to Macmillan Cancer Support. NHS England and the Department of Heath suggest progress is being made, but their claims don’t stand up to scrutiny.
TB in some London boroughs 'worse than Eritrea'
31 March 2015
Figures released by Public Health England at the end of March show that rates of tuberculosis in some London boroughs are worse than some of the poorest countries in the world.
Joint fight to stop huge NHS privatisation
30 March 2015
Three unions are combining to challenge the way NHS England is trying to hand a contract worth over £1 billion for primary care support services over to the private sector.
Unions consider health vote
Unions in health will be meeting at the start of March to consider the results of the ballots on the government’s offer in the NHS pay dispute.
Health workers to ballot on pay offer
7 February 2015
Unions in the NHS are balloting their members on the pay offer that their industrial action has extracted from a reluctant government. But no one on the union side is claiming victory.
Pay: take up the fight
Health workers will have to decide whether to meekly acquiesce in a continuous reduction of earnings or find a way to do what generations of workers before them have done: fight to improve pay.
NHS staff in second walkout
24 November 2014
Health workers throughout England walked out on strike this morning (24 November) for four hours in their long-running dispute over pay. The action followed a similar walkout on 13 November.
Ebola: capitalist health exposed
Just about every aspect of the insanity of capitalism is exposed by the current outbreak of Ebola virus centred on west Africa.
Midwives act on pay, staffing
On Monday 13 October the Royal College of Midwives struck for the first time in its long history – a four-hour stoppage.
NHS strike: News from hospitals
It is a reflection of the discipline and loyalty of health workers to their unions that despite the low ballot turnout they struck and held out in the face of adversity.
The NHS: unsafe in their hands
By the end of the next parliament the NHS could become a thing of the past, regardless of who is elected. Only workers can save it…
Midwife anger over private ads
15 October 2014
Adverts for private care displayed at maternity units are outraging midwives. On the picket line at an east London hospital, one midwife explained why.
Ambulance workers’ power blunts emergency provocation
The first strikes in the NHS for 32 years on 13 October – especially in the London Ambulance Service – gave the lie to the idea that workers are weak and that unions don’t matter.
Midwives to take historic action
30 September 2014
Midwives and maternity support workers will walk out on Monday 13 October after the government overruled the Independent Pay Review Board’s recommendation for a 1 per cent rise.
Strike call in NHS England
Unison members in the NHS in England are to be called on to take part in a four-hour strike on 13 October for more pay. But after that, what?
Health care professionals face 7-day challenge
People who work in health know that low levels of service provision over the weekend put patients’ lives in danger. The problem is how to move to 7-day provision while preserving wages and conditions…
Playing games with safety
The government wants to integrate the emergency services. The unions involved know what this really means: cuts in services, jobs and standards.
Malnutrition: Cases soar
Figures released by the Health and Social Care Information Centre show that 6,690 patients were treated for malnutrition in Britain’s hospitals in 2013-14, a 20 per cent increase on 2012-13.
Bill to open up land grab
An amendment to the Infrastructure Bill going through parliament will allow Boris Johnson or his successor as Mayor of London to acquire land held by all public bodies in London. The prime target for this land grab will be the estates of NHS properties in London estimated as being worth over £50 million.
NHS protests across England
As part of the ongoing pay dispute in the NHS, Unison and other health unions organised protests across England with lobbies, banners and stalls at dozens of hospital gates on 5 June.
Ambulance dispute looms
Ambulance workers’ unions are dusting off their plans for a ballot on industrial action in England after negotiations over sick pay have reached an impasse.
The NHS: fighting inside, fighting to win
For those working in the NHS, our best chance of entering the field in our best shape is the battle for pay...
The calculated ruin of the NHS
When they talk of a health market they mean health chaos. That, and a nice little earner for someone. We should begin by understanding what is being proposed.