THE Tory-led coalition’s hated Health Bill to privatise the NHS is due to go to the House of Lords today, following a mass demonstration against it on Sunday which filled Westminster Bridge.
Sunday’s action was the latest in a series of marches against the Bill, with health workers’ unions including doctors in the BMA, demanding the Bill be withdrawn.
Thousands of lively and good-humoured young workers and students gathered outside St Thomas’s Hospital – facing parliament – and occupied Westminster Bridge, unfurling a gigantic banner saying: ‘Save our NHS’.
At Big Ben’s strike of noon, the bridge was strewn with hundreds of bodies, many wearing hospital theatre gear and blood-red paint, as people lay down in a symbolic protest.
Demonstrators had come from all over the country to join the action, called by UK Uncut.
PCS, Unison and Unite trade unions lent their verbal support sending greetings through their websites, and paying for coaches, but there were no union banners, or official union speakers.
Sarah McCullick from Manchester said: ‘The NHS is generally in danger. It’s a blatant attempt to hand over all our NHS to deep-pocketed private organisations.
‘Our health care will be about profit. It’s nonsense to say the privatisation will drive up quality.
‘Thousands of people will die because of this Bill. And when you look at that kind of human cost – a cost we will never see because there will not be loads of bodies piled up on the streets.
‘But lots of old and sick people will be dying far before their time.
‘When you are looking at a toll like that, I don’t think there are any limits as to how far we would go to stop this Bill.
‘Personally I think we should overthrow this government.’
Ivan Monckton, who was carrying a Unite flag, said: ‘I organise farm workers in Wales.
‘We have to have this sort of protest and occupation becoming nearly a daily occurrence as it is in America.
‘We are going to see an escalation.’
Rachel Pony said: ‘I came down from Cambridge because the NHS is one of the few things in Britain to be proud of. We have to keep it free.
‘This is the beginning of the end and we don’t want to wind up like America.
‘It’s quite clear the Tory Party just represents the interest of big money and their cronies, and the rest of us count for nothing.
‘It’s rather stark that all three political parties are now geared to supporting business interests and they no longer have mass support.
‘As someone who works a lot with the Middle East, I’m looking for inspiration from them for this fight.’
Martin Hall, who came from Epping, said: ‘This protest won’t change their minds. This government won’t change its mind about anything.
‘They have seen the pot of gold, which is privatising the health service, and they are going for it.
‘I would certainly support a general strike.
‘I’ve been a member of the Labour Party all my life, but the Blair years have undermined my confidence in the Labour Party as a democratic party that can bring about change.’
Brave Waldron, who heard about Block the Bridge on Facebook and came with friends, said: ‘I came here because I was born in an NHS hospital which was knocked down 10 years later.
‘From the instant I was born until just yesterday, when I was in hospital to be with a friend who needed emergency treatment, and until only recently my mother would have died, if it had not been there. The NHS is vital to everyone.
‘Mr Lansley wants to put the final nail into an already crafted coffin, constructed by the Blair regime and designed by Margaret Thatcher.
‘Why would you not be here to defend the health service?’
Nick Smith said: ‘We’ve come from all over London, just to show solidarity.
‘We think the Bill will destroy the NHS and turn it into an American-style system.
‘Lansley is not listening, and it depends on what the Lords do. We are hoping it will make them realise people do care.
‘I am disappointed that there are not more union banners here.’
Imogen Cahill, a Sixth Form student from Southwark, said: ‘We saw this demonstration on Facebook and we came from Southwark.
‘It puts a price on someone’s life if you privatise health and it’s not just people struggling for money, it will affect everyone.
‘Health services are really expensive, when you see what happens in America, and basically no one wants the same here.’
Imogen’s friend Georgia Blackwell-Green said: ‘I know because some of my family who live in America have huge problems.
‘My grandfather doesn’t get the help he needs. Someone checks up on him to see he is not dying but he does not get the medicines he needs.
‘There is already so much poverty even in England, and this is one of the richest countries in the world.
‘We have got resources for health.
‘At the end of the day, it’s our tax money that keeps the health services going, and clearly people want it to be spent on the NHS and Lansley is not doing that.
‘It’s almost like a voluntary dictatorship if we just let it happen and don’t protest.’
A megaphone set up in the middle of Westminster Bridge provided an adhoc platform for speakers.
Several students from Spain spoke about the interaction next Saturday October 15, when cities all over the world would be occupied, alongside the Occupy Wall Street movement, and calls were made to occupy the London stock exchange.
One speaker said: ‘If they won’t stop the cuts, we are going to stop the government.’
Joshua Ogunleye, from the Young Socialists, received loud cheers when he said: ‘We have to occupy all hospitals threatened with closure, and organise a general strike to bring down this coalition government.’
Large numbers of health workers took part in Sunday’s demonstration and Mark Arnold, a UK Uncut spokesman, said it was very effective, with a ‘happy, party atmosphere’.
UK Uncut said: ‘If we want to save our NHS we need to shout as loud as we can.
‘No-one voted for this Bill, but together we can stop it.’
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), issued a statement, saying: ‘The government’s Health and Social Care Bill represents the gravest threat to the NHS, one of our nation’s finest achievements, since its foundation.’
He said he hoped the protest would ‘send an important message of support to the brilliant doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers who work day in, day out to make our health service the envy of the world, and an equally important message of opposition to a Tory-led government trying to unpick all of this.’
• The leader of the Royal College of Midwives, Cathy Warwick, has attacked Tory Prime Minister Cameron, saying that he has broken his pledge to recruit an extra 3,000 midwives to the NHS England and warning that this is putting the safety of women and unborn babies at risk.
The RCM has launched an e-petition demanding 5,000 extra midwives be trained.
‘Without this increase in midwife numbers and investment I have real fears that our maternity services could be heading towards a point where not only the quality of care is threatened, but safety as well,’ Warwick warned.
Senior midwives report falling budgets and pressure to cut staff despite ‘serious midwife shortages’.