Despite Tony Blair's insistence that he wants to carry through his "radical" socalled "modernising" reforms in the NHS before he SLCUS down Prime Minister there are signs that campaigns can force back the New Labour offensive.
One of the problems in fighting the latest series of government proposals has been that thev focus on reorganisation within the NHS and exploiting legislation already in place - and therefore do not require a further vote in Parliament, which would offer a focus and a national platform to fight back.
However as we go to press it seems that an intensive spate of angry lobbying by Labour back benchers infuriated at the Department of Health's plans to fragment and privatise many of the services provided Primary Care Trusts has forced at least a partial climbdown by Secretary Patricia Hewitt.
She used a speech to a conference of the NHS Alliance (representing doctors and managers in community and primary health care) in Harrogate to apologise for the way in which the latest plans had been announced in an NHS circular from Chief Executive Nigel Crisp at the end of July - without any consultation with the management of the Primary Care Trusts.
Apparently stung by the scale or lne opposition to tne call for these services to be separated from the direct control of PCTs and "outsourced", Hewitt has now
deny, that sne intended to force through the privatisation of services.
However the retreat is far from LOLa Hewitt attempting to change the rules to force more hospital Trusts down the road of Foundation Trust status, and the plans to spend a massive £2 billion a year buying in NHS operations from private hospitals and Treatment Centres are forging ahead.
Plans to force through the merger of many PCTs into larger organisations are also pressing ahead, albeit with the additional rigmarole of a 3-month "consultation" period before the schemes are implemented.
Many people have seen this merger process as one designed to create larger local services, more likely to attract the interest of the private sector.
Once the mergers have gone through, it will then be up to the new, even less accountable PCTs to decide how many of their services they wish to contract out to private companies or voluntary sector organisations.
One major threat however has been beaten back: following protests which included an all-party vote of Oxfordshire County Council to condemn the proposals, ministers have confirmed that plans to outsource the commissioning role of a new merged PCT covering the whole of Oxfordshire - controlling a budget of £575m a year -have been shelved.
Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority have been told that ministers do not support their privatisation, and instructed to proceed no Turtner ... for the time being.
The victories that have been secured show the need to step up the campaigns across the country and redouble the pressure on ministers.
The Keep Our Public campaign, which has sprung up as a broad organisation to link local campaigners, unions, doctors, and all those wanting to challenge the erosion of the
has launched an appeal for supporters to task out individual membership, and build local groups in every area to challenge cuts and privatisation wherever Fighting hospital closures in Suffolk: no retreat yet from Hewitt on massive cuts they are threatened.
Its campaign website offers background briefings, national petition, campaign advice and useful links, and the campaign will further step up its efforts to collect and publicise information on government policies and their impact at national and local level.
In many areas Respect activists have been playing a valuable role in getting local campaigns off the ground and building the first round of public meetings: it is important not to lose the momentum that has been
PEOPLE IN UNISON