Let’s fight to give the NHS another 70 years
Mass demo to save Health Service
TENS of thousands will march on Downing Street today to mark the 70th birthday of the NHS...and demand it’s kept safe forever.
Crowds will assemble at noon in the heart of the capital in a fitting tribute to a pioneering healthcare system which led the world but is now in peril.
Our NHS 70 demonstration will celebrate its principles and condemn brutal underfunding and privatisation.
The event, backed by the Mirror, will end at Whitehall where speakers will include Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, campaigners and celebrities.
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The NHS has served most of us since before we were born. It brought us into this world. And for many of us, it saved our lives.
“But let’s not forget it was only created because working people fought for it.
“And it will only have a future if we fight for it today. Years of underfunding have left it in a critical condition. We have massive shortages of hospital beds, doctors and nurses. Hardworking staff are stressed, stretched and risk burnout.
“If we give our NHS funding it needs and keep it in public hands, we can give British people the best health service in the world. And keep it free for everyone.”
The event will be a carnival of colour with revellers in fancy dress from each of the NHS’s seven decades marching to music from that period. The march comes after a decade-long funding
squeeze, the worst in NHS history, with annual increases of around 1%, well below the 4% historic average.
Experts say Theresa May’s recent promised increase of around 3% is not enough to undo a rapid collapse of standards. Waits for emergency wards have soared amid stories of the desperately ill kept for hours in corridors.
Patients now struggle to see a single family GP and waits for an appointment can stretch for weeks. Cancer survival rates in Britain still lag behind almost all comparable EU countries and public health budgets have been drastically cut.
Sam Fairbairn, national secretary of The People’s Assembly, which is organising the march, said: “Our NHS has rightly been described as one of the best healthcare services on the planet using the principle of healthcare funded through general taxation and provided free, for all, by the state.
“It’s shameful our Government refuses to give the NHS the funding it needs. It’s time we look back to the founding principles and force our Government to change their attitude.”
Polling for the Mirror shows privatisation of the NHS is feared most by the young. Almost three quarters of 25 to 35s, fear the rise of US-style private healthcare compared to 50% of over-60s.
Recent years have seen PFI contacts, private firms providing care and the “outsourcing” of low paid NHS staff to take them off the books. The 2012 Health and Social Care Act by Tory Andrew Lansley opened up the NHS to private firms. Overall 59% believe the NHS is being gradually privatised.
The poll of 2,000 Brits, carried out by Atomik Research, showed nine in 10 would pay 1p more National Insurance if it went to the NHS. Support for this was highest in the North East, North West and West Midlands.
Aislinn Macklin-Doherty, national secretary of co-organisers Health Campaigns Together, said: “Tens of thousands of us will tell this Government we want our NHS brought back into public hands.
“We demand an end to the sell-off and we demand proper funding to ensure access to universal high quality healthcare.”
Other speakers will include Chaand Nagpaul, council chair of the British Medical Association, as well as actors such as Royle Family star Ralf Little and Coronation Street’s Sally Lindsay.
There will be music, acts and accounts from activists and NHS front line staff.
They will be there to demonstrate their appreciation for the dedicated and hardworking staff without whom the health service would be nothing.
They will be there because they believe the NHS is one of our proudest achievements – and deserves to be valued, supported and properly funded.
And they will be there to demand the Government stops undermining the NHS through neglect and privatisation.
There should be no need for this demonstration. The million people who work in the NHS should not have to campaign for decent pay. Nurses should not be relying on foodbanks to make ends meet.
Our A&E departments should not be under such pressure. Patients should not have to wait months for an appointment or face delays when an ambulance is called.
This rally is only necessary because of a Tory government which has failed to give the NHS the funds it needs and has handed out contracts to profit-raking private firms.
If you care for the NHS please join the rally today. On its 70th anniversary we must show we treasure our NHS, free at the point of delivery and available to all, more than ever.