IT'S important to highlight several things in relation to the government’s announcement of £22 billion pounds worth of cuts to the NHS and in light of our fight to save Stroud Minor Injuries Unit.
Some residents signing our petition to keep the MIU open 24 hours have alerted us to the fact that the NHS Choices website for the last year and until just the last week has not been listing Stroud Hospital or the MIU on the site.
Some residents have also reported that when phoning the NHS emergency phone line for ‘minor injuries’, they are being directed to go to A & E at the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital who then are told they are wasting their time when they have a local MIU.
This raises the important and very worrying question ’why would they do this’?
Clearly, this will put unnecessary strain on A&E at Gloucester Hospital and make the MIU in Stroud appear to be ‘unsafe and over staffed and under used’, the argument then being that this is a waste of resources.
Strangely enough, these are the very arguments being used to endorse a reduced service or even a possible full closure.
The Health and Social Care Act (2012) clearly outlines the path to full privatisation.
On the July 9, 2016 the new Under Secretary of State for NHS Productivity, Lord David Prior, in a House of Lords debate on the “sustainability” of the NHS (moved on 9th July by crossbench peer Lord Patel) launched an enquiry into starting NHS charges and payments through private insurance and charges, not through taxation.
Over the last few weeks I have been out and about gathering many signatures from local people for out petition and when I have a discussion with them about the NHS, many are shocked to learn these things.
However, there’s something we can all do to fight for our NHS; whether it’s attending a rally, writing letters to newspapers, attending consultations, having conversations with family and friends to let them know what is really going on, or signing our petition.
As Labour’s wonderful Nye Bevan once said “The NHS will last as long as there are folk left with faith to fight for it.”
Debbie Hicks
Vice chair of Stroud Constituency Labour Party
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