Brown's new health secretary signs death warrants for key Manchester hospital services cutbacks! FIGHT BACK against hospital
Sunday Sept 23
MARCH with a message
freedom for all
for Labour, Unite
demonstration at Labour
Conference, 1pm
BOURNEMOUTH • an end to off-shoring - quality, secure jobs for all • to ensure equal rights for agency workers - and trade union• to close the yawning wealth gap • to deliver fair pay to public sector workers and quality, publicly provided health and education for all • to free councils to build decent housing for all Health Secretary Alan Johnson took office a lew weeks ago promising to listen to health workers and to local people: but by mid August he has shown that the NHS is already back to business as usual, banging through Patricia Hewitt's agenda of unpopular hospital closures.
In August Johnson rubber-stamped the closure of maternity units at four hospitals - Fairfield in Bury, Rochdale Infirmary, Trafford and Salford Hope along with Salford's neonatal intensive care unit.
Each unit has been strongly defended, with local campaigns and petitions mobilising thousands - but for ministers this is clearly the wrong type of patient choice. Thousands of women will now face longer journeys to have their
babies - and tens of thousands of local campaigners up and down the country will fear that their hospitals will be next on Johnson's closure list as phony consultation procedures are forced through. Saturday November 3 Central London National demonstration in central London to celebrate and defend the NHS Further details from www.unison.org.uk//healthcare/keepNHSworking