Push for More Midwives!

UNISON midwives and nurses at Kingston Hospital, Surrey held a candlelight vigil tonight (30th March 2011) to protest at the shortage of midwives at the hospital and to oppose the loss of 500 nursing and medical posts at the hospital.

Nora Pearce UNISON Midwifery Convenor stated

" UNISON is campaigning against the national shortage of midwives. We will be campaigning with local mothers to ensure Kingston hospital gets the resources it needs to continue a high quality service to mothers"

Michael Walker UNISON London Nursing Officer states

"The national shortage of Nurses and Midwives is being exacerbated by increased attendance at A&E and higher birth rates than projected, The Government needs to act urgently to avoid a crisis" (press release)

"Don't Privatise Our Blood Service"

"UNISON Reps from across the South east including Isle of Wight handed in a letter to the TUC Trades Union Congress in London urging them to join the campaign to oppose the threat to privatise the NHS Blood Service and pledging support for the TUC demonstration in London on Saturday 26th March

Debbie Jones UNISON South East Blood Service Convenor stated

"We are fully committed to maintaining the blood collection service on the Isle of Wight and a delegation from the Isle of Wight blood collection team will be attending the demonstration on Saturday March 26th in London we hope many of our blood donors will join us"

Michael Walker UNISON Regional Officer states

"UNISON nurses and donor carers will fight any attempt to privatise the NHS Blood Service and we urge the public to support our campaign in the coming months".  (UNISON press release)

St Georges Hospital, London - £55 Million Cuts - 500 Jobs going

Despite the great news today about the Tory climbdown over the privatisation of our Forests and the apparent retreat over reducing Housing benefit for the unemployed.  This Government still shows its nasty, vindictive side by the announcement that "Leading Hospital" St Georges in Tooting London will suffer £55 million in cuts and 500 hospital jobs (10%) cut.  Three wards are due to close. 

UNISON PRESS RELEASE "Staff at St Georges Hospital, South London have acted with growing shock and anger at the announcement that 500 posts ( almost 10% of the workforce)at the hospital are to be axed as part of the Governments 20 billion NHS cuts programme.

St George's will now be forced to cut £50m from its annual budget, cut 500 medical nursing and health care posts close wards, cut approximately 100 beds, and cap the number of births in its Midwifery unit to 5,000 a year Posts affected include frontline doctors, nurses and professional staff.

Michael Walker, UNISON Regional Officer, states "In a week when the bankers are set to receive huge pay rises and multi million pound bonuses, we are going to witness the spectre at St George's of dedicated nurses, doctors and health staff losing their jobs. How can that be fair or right?"

Nurse Jane Pilgrim, UNISON Nursing Convenor at St Georges Hospital states:
"We were told by the Government that there would be no cuts in frontline posts but in reality the NHS is witnessing swingeing cuts to frontline services every day".

Geoff Thorne, UNISON St George's Branch Secretary stated: "Before the General Election Andrew Lansley visited St Georges Hospital and gave a personal guarantee to staff that there would be no frontline cuts in the NHS"

Nora Pearce UNISON Midwifery Convenor states: "Capping the number of births at St George's to just 3,000 a year will mean thousands of local women will no-longer be able to have their babies at St George's, denying them the back up and confidence they know comes from having a baby at an internationally renowned teaching hospital.

Michael Walker, UNISON Regional Officer stated: "UNISON will be working with St George's Hospital management to mitigate the impact of these cuts on patients and staff. Mr Lansley needs to urgently recognise the damage he is causing to the NHS with these unprecedented levels of cuts".

"We fear these cuts are just the prelude to even greater cuts in our NHS when the Government unleash GP Commissioning and GP's are forced to ration care.  "We urge all local Member's of Parliament, of all political persuasion’s to intercede and urge Andrew Lansley the Conservative Secretary of State for Health to halt these disastrous cuts at St George's before patient care suffers.

Tories Attempt To Privatise Blood

UNISON press release: Karen Jennings, UNISON Head of Health:

“What is this Government thinking of, is nothing safe? The blood service is world class and doesn’t need interfering with.

It epitomises how successfully volunteers and the public sector can work together, free from contamination by the profit motive. It is a service people are proud to work in and you cannot put a price on giving blood to save lives.

“We know from all the evidence that fragmenting services, outsourcing and the contracting out damages that ethos and more importantly damages the smooth running of the service.

“How can Cameron and Lansley claim that the NHS is safe in their hands, when they are planning to literally drain its lifeblood.”

Michael Walker UNISON Regional Officer states

"Blood Service Collection teams are fully committed to an NHS run blood service, so are the donor's who donate their blood, any attempt to privatise the service will be meet with a tidal wave of opposition from staff and donors. The Government should be under no illusion that we will fight any attempt to introduce profit making into the blood service, We have fought similar proposals from previous Conservative Governments, including the use of direct action and the staff will not hesitate to do so again"

"DH looks to private sector to save money on blood service
16 February, 2011 | By Sarah Calkin
The Department of Health is considering outsourcing key elements of the NHS blood service to the private sector. HSJ has learned the DH’s commercial directorate has held talks with private providers about running parts of the NHS Blood and Transplant service. It is not known which companies the department has already spoken to, but HSJ understands NHS Supply Chain, which is operated by logistics firm DHL has been invited in for discussions, as has Capita.

A senior source told HSJ the commercial directorate were “market testing the blood transfusion service” and “bringing people in to see how they would do it better”.  NHS Blood and Transplant survived the cull of arms length bodies in July but a second review was announced to look at how the service could become more “commercially effective” and identify functions which could be contracted out.

HSJ has been told the DH is considering outsourcing blood distribution and storage but keeping its collection in the NHS.  A DH spokeswoman confirmed the department was reviewing the future of the service.  She said: “It is important to recognise that NHSBT already outsources some of its support functions. The current review is at the early stages.

“During the review, we will be considering the experience and skills that exist in the private sector to identify opportunities for making NHSBT more commercially effective.  “We are not considering any functions that could risk destabilising the current national donor system, particularly the interface with donors. Where functions are being reviewed, ministers will be fully consulted before making any recommendations.”

UNISON Nurses say "Stop the Cuts and defend our NHS"!

This is a great picture of UNISON Nurses from St Georges Hospital in Tooting, South London. Who have taken today "time out...to protest at the Governments planned NHS reforms and decision to cut £10bn a year from the NHS through so called efficiency savings.

UNISON Nursing staff at St George's have signalled that they will not hesitate to speak out against Government plans for swingeing cuts and privatisation of the NHS.

Michael Walker UNISON Regional Officer states

"UNISON will not sit ideally by and watch our NHS services slashed and privatised. Britain did not vote for the introduction of an American health care system, a system which is not comprehensive, bureaucratic, expensive and where increased competition not collaboration costs patients lives".

Jane Pilgrim UNISON Nursing Convenor at St George's Hospital, Tooting states

"Over one hundred nurses at St Georges Hospital have already signalled they will be joining the TUC rally to defend public services on Saturday 26th March in central London and we are receiving incredible support from the local community". 

Hat-tip UNISON press release.

Save NHS Direct

This BBC report confirms earlier rumours that the CONDEMS are planning to scrap NHS Direct and replace it with a privately run call centre staffed by unqualified operatives. 

So much for the Tory pledge to safeguard the NHS?  NHS Direct is a success and actually saves money by stopping people going to see the GP's or A&E unnecessarily.  They also conversely -save lives since many people (especially men) will not go and seek medical advice in person but will ring up NHS Direct and will then accept their advice that they should see their GP.

This only works because people trust the service and know that they are speaking to properly trained and qualified NHS staff. 

Most privately run medical call centres have a terrible reputation.  People do not trust the confidentiality of these centres and the quality of the advice. 

This is from the UNISON press release: -

STAND UP FOR NHS DIRECT

The Guardian states that Conservative Secretary of State for Health has let slip that the Coalition is to scrap NHS Direct for a cheaper service.

The proposal is to replace 3,000 dedicated specialist nurses and health professionals with a cheap private call centre, with no access to a nurse.

Private call centres with unqualified staff can never replace this excellent service, which provides vital immediate support such as during the swine flu outbreak which saw scores of people die.

NHS Direct UNISON Official Michael Walker states:

"Not one Coalition party stated they would scrap NHS Direct in their manifesto. There is no mandate for cutting this service . If the government attack NHS Direct, what else is next? What other NHS cuts are they hiding? It is time for Cameron and Clegg to come clean about their real plans for our NHS."

Join UNISON's campaign to Save NHS Direct.