PRESS RELEASE
On Saturday
21st January, the Labour Party organised a national Campaign Day to
raise awareness about the ongoing crisis in the NHS. Major hospital
incidents are being reported on an almost daily basis, and the danger to
the public is that the sick and vulnerable are being put at risk.
However, we hear stories about desperately needed beds, which cannot be
freed up, because a lack of Social Care in the community prevents
patients being released from hospital - the scandalous ‘bed-blocking’.
Those
who study the crisis complain that the NHS is both underfunded and
understaffed. The figures speak for themselves: there are now around 3.9
million people on waiting lists and 1.8 million having to wait four or
more hours at A&E. At GP surgeries one in four patients have to wait
a week or more to see a doctor.
With our
own local hospital currently under threat, Southend Labour Party took to
the streets to defend the NHS. As Councillor Julian Ware-Lane (Milton
Ward) said: “The National Health Service is a vital and much loved
institution. It is being undermined by a Government determined to shrink
public services.
“There is nothing more
important than one’s health, and good access to first class facilities
makes for a healthy society. Only Labour properly funds the NHS. You
cannot trust the Tories to properly fund it!”
So
on Saturday, local Labour activists appeared at multiple locations all
over Southend Borough to deliver leaflets door to door, as well as
collect signatures on petition sheets and to hand out hundreds of
leaflets to Saturday shoppers.
To increase
effectiveness Labour Party members joined forces with members of another
nationwide organisation, Keep Our NHS Public, under the railway bridge
in Southend High Street. Passers-by were stopped and asked if they knew
what was happening to the NHS, and they were alerted to the dangers of
the proposed changes to Southend Hospital’s A&E Department. There
was a constant stream of people queueing to sign the petition sheets,
and 430 signatures were collected in two hours.
Campaigning
against Government policy can only become more intense as the crisis
deepens. Councillor Helen McDonald (Kursaal Ward) made this comment:
"The NHS Campaign Day was a culmination of activism that has been taking
place in Southend for months now, and it certainly will not be the end
of campaigning to save our health care services from being decimated by
cuts.
“Many local people will have had
direct experience of this: our health care services are at breaking
point! More and more people are beginning to speak out, as they come to
realise that aspects of the Sustainability and Transformation Plans
(STPs) will have a devastating impact. I would encourage all local
residents to make their voice heard on these plans by signing the
petition and contacting their MP."
The petition can be signed on-line here:
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