Lewisham's answer to the St. Valentine's day massacre
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| Ander McIntyre |
What better way to
enjoy Valentine's Day than a spot of direct action at the Department
of Health? In Lewisham we don't celebrate in secret we go out in
style!
Red heart-shaped balloons, home-made bunting to festoon the
streets of Westminster, posters galore inscribed with a message from
the mothers, babies, children and people of Lewisham – 'Don't rip
the heart out of our hospital, Mr Hunt' and hand-delivered baby sock
rosebuds for Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health, each with
their own story of a baby born and saved by Lewisham Hospital. In
Lewisham we don't go for subtle. We go for the jugular.
Last Thursday 14 February more than
130 babies, mums, dads, grannies and citizens of the London borough
of Lewisham descended unannounced to pay a special Valentine's call
on the Right Honorable Jeremy Hunt MP at his office. Sadly he did not
join us to receive in person our heartfelt offerings but that didn't
detract from a morning of peaceful but exuberant protest.
Our message was shouted
load and proud: the fight to save Lewisham Hospital did not end with Jeremy Hunt's announcement on the 31st of January
that acute services at Lewisham Hospital would be cut.
How can this small part
of London have any relevance to the rest of the country and world? I
hear you cry.
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| Ander McIntyre |
The reason is this:
Lewisham Hospital is a solvent and clinically well-respected
healthcare provider. The fact that its fate hangs in the balance is
purely financial because its vital services are being sacrificed to
bail out the disastrous PFI contract that has drained to ruin
neighbouring South London Healthcare Trust. So, according to Jeremy
Hunt, it's now perfectly acceptable to remove obstetric-led maternity
and emergency care from a population of nearly 280,000 just to balance his books.
Nevermind the safety of thousands who use their hospital every day or
the fact that neighbouring hospitals are full to bursting. No, the
priority in healthcare these days is profitability.
The other reason is the
small incidental detail that it seems the coalition government has an
agenda to dismantle the welfare state. I grew up in the shadow of
Thatcher so sweeping changes to benefits, education and health were a
feature of my childhood and I recognise an unmandated eradication of
public services when I see one.
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| Ander McIntyre |
Lewisham Hospital is a
test case for every hospital across the country. And the wholesale
destruction of the NHS will have ramifications beyond our green and
pleasant shores. Isn't the NHS held up as a shining light in
international healthcare? If we lose healthcare that is free at the
point of delivery what are we replacing it with and gone will be the
days of a pioneering health model to be replicated across the globe.
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| Ander McIntyre |
But the likes of Jeremy
Hunt and the cabal in the Department of Health don't scare the
residents of Lewisham. We're a plucky bunch and we're showing David
Cameron what a Big Society can do when people join together and form
a real community.
We're not going down without a big, public and
embarrasing fight. The boys at Number 10 may think they can dismiss
down-at-heel Lewisham with its massive population of refugees, asylum
seekers, travellers, migrants and vulnerable families but they have
underestimated the little people.
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| Ander McIntyre |
The patronising arrogance of our
well-oiled leaders will be their un-doing. We have strength and
experience on our side. When many of our number have defied miliatry
juntas, grown up behind the iron curtain of Communism and marched
thousands of miles across deserts, steppes, plaines and the English
Channel taking on a bunch of public school boys with their hands deep
in McKinsey's pockets doesn't seem too much of a struggle. And, as
most of us are unemployed good for nothings – in the eyes of our
esteemed government – we might as well while away our days taking a
stand for our hospital, our NHS and the future of Britain's Welfare
State.
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