‘CLOSING Ealing Hospital maternity is a real attack on the NHS and a real attack on the people of Southall, Ealing and surrounding areas,’ Dave Wiltshire, National Secretary of the All Trades Unions Alliance, told a meeting of more than 100 workers, students and youth on Tuesday night.
The meeting in Ealing Broadway, called by the West London Council of Action, voted unanimously to march into Ealing Hospital next Wednesday and occupy to stop the closure. Ealing Hospital managers have written letters to expectant mothers telling them that the last baby to be born at Ealing Hospital will be on Wednesday 24th June, after which the doors will be closed to them and they will have to go elsewhere.
‘If people are willing to stand up and occupy then we are with them,’ John McDonnell, Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington told the meeting. Wiltshire responded: ‘I look forward to walking into Ealing Hospital with you next Wednesday.’
Opening the meeting, Wiltshire said: ‘Attacks from the Tories have reached a high point. If you want an NHS it’s time for action. These hospitals belong to the community, they belong to the working class. The Tories want to hand the NHS over to the vultures. The privateers want to get their hands on the NHS budget. It’s coming in full tilt. It has to stop here in Ealing. It is now necessary for the working class to take over. Join us on the march next Wednesday and join us in the occupation.’
Julian Pallett, West London Postal CWU Assistant Secretary, said: ‘I want to talk about my personal experience of Ealing Hospital Maternity Unit. Ten-and-a-half years ago my daughter was born on an emergency caesarian section and mother and daughter stayed in Ealing maternity for ten days. The fact that it was commutable meant that I could visit every day without any problem.
‘There were loads of complications and the staff were brilliant and it made me so thankful that we have a local service. Now they intend to take that away from us next week. The direct action proposed is the only way to stop it. Email appeals and protests don’t work, lobbying doesn’t work. The direct action proposed is the only way to save the maternity.’
Scott Dore, Workers Revolutionary Party General Election candidate for Ealing Central and Acton last month, said: ‘This is a very crucial meeting because next week they are going to stop babies being born at Ealing Hospital maternity. When I stood in the election I spoke to lots of people and they were all appalled at the prospect of closure.
‘Having an occupation, being defiant, physically occupying, shows we’re not going to accept. For everyone who has come out today, join us on the march. The occupation is the way of keeping the maternity open. We’ve been campaigning outside the hospital for two years and on a daily basis for the past month.
‘We not only hate the government, we want to bring it down. They have made so many cuts. Our party is not going to pander to anyone. It’s building the leadership to play the decisive role in organising the fight to save the maternity. Join our daily picket, come along on the march.’
Shani Bacchus, a medical secretary at Ealing Hospital, told the meeting that when having her second baby in the 1980s it was only the refusal of ambulancemen to listen to instructions telling them to take her to a far distant maternity department and instead taking her straight to the nearest one that saved her life and that of her child. The NHS is about saving lives,’ she said. ‘But this government is severing it at every limb and this is what they are doing at Ealing Hospital.’
Hank Roberts, Secretary of Brent ATL, said: ‘This government is privatising health and they are privatising education. As a teacher, we’ve suffered a 15% fall in our standard of living. They have just announced that they are proceeding with forced academisation without any parental consultation. We occupied a site in Wembley to stop it becoming an academy, we occupied twice and we held them up for five years. The same applies when they are trying to attack hospitals. Occupy!’
John McDonnell, Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, said: ‘The NHS is being wholesale privatised and handed over to private companies. Over the past 12 months two-thirds of NHS contracts have gone to the private sector. In our area it’s as if they are trying to role it out in advance and if occupations are the only way in which we can protect our services, so be it. Occupations expose what’s going on and mobilise people to defend their services.
‘Under Thatcher in the 1980s, we occupied Hayes Cottage Hospital for eight weeks and saved the site as an NHS facility. London is like a rebel city, you don’t hear about it except in papers like the News Line, but people are occupying their homes against the private developers. The disability movement DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts) is very strong. These people are heroes. They occupied ATOS, which was carrying out the work assessment tests to throw disabled people off benefits and forced them to give up the government contract. We’re not going to take it any more. If people are willing to stand up and occupy then we are with them.’
News Line Deputy Editor Jonty Leff said: ‘We are extremely concerned. Ealing Hospital covers a massive, densely populated area and closing its maternity will be a complete disaster. A few weeks ago there was a huge crisis and emergency when other maternity departments in the area were full and Ealing had to take in mothers from other areas.
‘We’ve just lost the A&E departments at Hammersmith and Central Middlesex Hospitals and if we lose the maternity at Ealing then its paediatrics and A&E departments will be next. We occupied Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield and nurses have occupied UCL and Elisabeth Garrett Anderson Hospitals and other hospitals.
‘We are in it to win it and occupation is the way to win. We have to get everyone on the march and not stop outside but march straight into the maternity and occupy. When you take action it is a rallying point, we haven’t got a choice we have to occupy.’
The West London Council of Action Resolution to the meeting read: ‘We are very concerned that the government has decided to close the Maternity Department at Ealing Hospital on Wednesday 24 June. We are not prepared to accept this closure, nor any further attacks on Ealing Hospital. This meeting therefore calls on the people of Southall, Acton and Ealing to join the march on Wednesday 24 June and be ready to occupy the Maternity Unit to keep it open.’
It was passed unanimously.