Thousands of Chichester protestors set political correctness aside to slam local health cuts which could close their A&E unit Sector Treatment Centres".
A new ISTC is due to open in NE London in February, delivering up to 11,000 operations a year which would otherwise have been commissioned from Trusts - leaving the NHS hospitals high and dry.
In Essex the threat of another, larger ISTC has resulted in the cancellation of two new PFI-funded hospital projects, in Colchester and Chelmsford.
As precious local services come under threat from halfbaked and cynical proposals which are fit for the bin, the need for high profile and coordinated to fight back against the closures and at the privatisation agenda which is driving the New Labour 'reforms' becomes ever more urgent.
The regional protests called for March 3 by the 15 unions and organisations in NHS Together must be built into the biggest-possible show of strength, focused on the services and communities most at risk, and coupled with the demand for a national demonstration to give real vent to public anger at the chaos and carnage New Labour has brought to our most popular public service.