Public service Fightback!

Volunteers required . . .

The National Health Service is undergoing considerable change at present. Changes big on promise, all the right boxes ticked - but on the ground service becoming a nightmare and staff and patient care suffering.
We're sold stories of bright new shiny hospitals which are definitely needed but scratch beneath the surface and we're getting a lot of self-congratulatory hype from people whose vested interests lie elsewhere.

We face job cuts, closures and cutbacks - a diminished service replaced by one ran to quotas, an attendant bureaucracy of well paid consultancies, managers and sub managers, privatisation for the sake of it and practically a licence to print money.

In real terms these cuts are unnecessary. There is no real reason - or the reasons stated are various and incoherent. Part slap in the face and taste of things to come and part due to Labours fixation with targets.
Even in the Govts own cheesy cliche-speak of ‘best practice’ and ‘value for money’ this makes no sense as many of the services up for grabs are set to be more expensive. In fact many business analysts are baffled as to the Govts actions stating that the figures are nothing to be alarmed about. And they are a fraction of the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These are the actions of an administration trying to look dynamic at our expense and reveal nothing but contempt for the public.
We are being sold short by a bunch of goons that get by on spin and hype but with no effective opposition to challenge them. People that get off on telling us we drink, smoke and enjoy ourselves too much and ram patronising and hypocritical sermons down our throats as to how we should live our lives. This is a parliament stuffed with lawyers and ‘fairplay’ rulemakers with no direction other than to see society stifled and stepping to their tune.

Whether we like it or not this period is one undergoing substantial change, much of it seemingly without direction. Changes are afoot in the economy, labour market and beyond and we can no longer afford a head-in-the-sand approach.
If we allow this period to fester with, at best, hopeful gestures and placing faith in foot-draggers and sellout merchants then they will wriggle out of it in one form or another, something else will replace it - immigration, criminality and general bad behaviour likely to the fore. Expect stories of unscrupulous care workers, scamming immigrants and general unfeeling, uncaring and self-interested behaviour. Basically, how crap we all are and that we need decisions making for us.

Too often this is where we fall down. We allow a mood to fester, individuals and groups picked off, others keep their heads down, regulations follow and we’re stuffed.

So what do we do?

Merely ask the bosses to be nice to us whilst we leave them to do their jobs? Their jobs being nothing more than to whip us into some indeterminate shape and in real terms our paymasters. ln very real terms they have little to do with actually running the health service.

Despite 'bending over backwards' to minimise the harm of cuts in the Health service it's fairly obvious that with the appointment of two new turnaround directors Mid-Yorkshire Health trust are determined to see through some nasty treatment. Therefore anything we do will have to be determined.
Health workers need to be able stick up for themselves day to day and to be comfortable that others will genuinely support them - us, the general public as users and fellow workers with an interest in our livelihoods. If we do this we prove that there is nothing to fear by making a stand.

lt’s suggested that staff adopt a policy of non compliance with unnecessary paperwork, refuse to comply with target driven initiatives that allow management to please their political masters (but do nothing for patient care) and break the 'vow of silence'. Professionalism is nothing to do with speaking out against a drop in service, in fact quite the opposite.
And no victimisation. Management and their friends will do everything they can to win this - everything from soft soaping to disciplinary action for petty reasons and more.

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By now the current swathe of redundancy notices will have been handed out and staff worried about their livelihoods. Management have said they will do all they can to minimise redundancies yet haven’t ruled out the option as a continuing part of their plans. There shouldn’t be a single one. lf the principle of us losing jobs to save their necks is accepted then how long before one becomes 93, 450, 1100? And remaining staff carrying an increased workload.

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Even at low levels of growth, the nation’s wealth is predicted to double over the next 40 years. Advances in medical science and practice mean more and better treatments are constantly being developed yet held back by red tape, underfunding and an aversion culture. Notwithstanding groundbreaking new technologies, today we face the rundown of essential services and health staff, effort and resources diverted into meeting quotas and targets. The results of this are well known - people are dying and losing out on basic healthcare whilst all the time we are told things are getting better.

The NHS has never been perfect and we should be clear that ‘nationalising’ it, ie. keeping it in public ownership, is a limited call. What is meant by public ownership? In truth we own precious little of it although our collective labours create it. Usually it means run by the state yet it is state policy to stitch up the NHS and private entrepreneurs are merely doing what they do best.
Further, in a globalised economy shouldn’t we be thinking of an international health service? To some extent it already is - staff, products and patients from all over the world.

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To stand any chance of stopping the rot we need to make a determined stand and stick up for ourselves. For that we need to recognise the general nature of this battle.
No job cuts, no closures and no loss of services should be the most basic stand taken - for decent employment and a health service worthy of the name.

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This leaflet aims to help set up health worker support groups to discuss further actions and activities. Every inch forward will be a hard fought one as despite overwhelming anger and public sympathy there is little that people believe can be done under the present circumstances.
ln the past people have been motivated into action for various reasons - good and bad. Isn’t it time that we consider something worth fighting for today - before we get caught up in events?

Health workers need support now.

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Unison are coordinating other aspects - 01924 212335



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