THOUSANDS are marching through west London against hospital closures today, determined that Charing Cross, Hammersmith, Central Middlesex and Ealing hospitals will not close.
Today’s march assembles at Rockley Road, off Shepherds Bush Green at 11am and marches past Charing Cross Hospital to a rally in Lillie Recreation Ground nearby.
It follows a 10,000-strong march from Southall Park, past Ealing Hospital to Ealing Common last month and it comes ahead of the conclusion of the false ‘consultation process’ next week.
A new report published this week by consultant Tim Rideout, the former chief executive of the NHS in Leicester, states that the A&Es which will be left in North-West London – if Central Middlesex, Hammersmith and Charing Cross are closed – will simply be unable to absorb the additional patients.
One of them, Northwick Park, is already so full that it is forced to shut its doors to new emergency cases one day in every ten. The patients turned away are currently usually sent to Charing Cross.
Now the service is being stretched still further by A&E closures. For every one that is shut down, ambulances have to drive much further, to more distant hospitals. That makes them unavailable for longer periods.
An NHS spokesman admitted that patients who had to wait for an ambulance at the urgent care centres could be given pain relief. However, the centres will, in fact, be forbidden from giving anything but the mildest painkillers.
Dr Onkar Sahota, a Southall GP, was elected as Greater London Authority member for Ealing and Hillingdon as an anti-hospital closure candidate in May.
He insists that the ‘consultation’ proposals attempt to pit ‘hospitals against hospitals, communities against communities’.
Dr Sahota told the Labour Party Conference in Manchester on Wednesday this week: ‘Because of the prospect of the crippling of NHS services, I decided to leave the Ealing commissioning group.
‘At the London Assembly elections this May against all the odds, in the face of a Tory majority many said could not be overturned, the people of Ealing and Hillingdon gave a clear message.
‘These cuts are wrong, this top-down organisation must be stopped and the closure of all A&E departments in west London isn’t the reconfiguration of services, it is the butchery of the NHS.’
As well as targeting west London’s hospitals, the Tory-LibDem Coalition government and west London Tory councils are also waging war on council housing and working class homes.
Sally Taylor, Secretary of West Kensington and Gibbs Green Tenants and Residents Association, told News Line this week: ‘People are very, very angry about the threatened closure of Hammersmith and Charing Cross hospitals, as well as the other west London hospitals.
‘We’ve also been fighting the demolition of our estates for three-and-a-half years.
‘It’s 750 homes they want to demolish. There’s nothing wrong with them, they are solid concrete.
‘These are leasehold, freehold, council, family mosaic and housing association homes. We’ve got a complete mixture.
‘Basically, they are trying to demolish West Kensington, they are trying to demolish Hammersmith and Fulham.
‘They’ve already sold the land. It’s the biggest development outside of China.
‘It involves demolishing Earls Court 1, Earls Court 2, West Ken Estate, Gibbs Green Estate and we think that’s just the start. White City’s going to go as well.
‘It’s all down to capitalism, money.
‘These hospitals are needed by people who don’t and can’t pay, but as far as the capitalists are concerned they only want to serve those who can pay.
‘What’s interesting is that there are plans for a new private hospital in the new development on the land of the West Ken and Gibbs Green Estates that they are planning to demolish.
‘Our campaign supports the fight to defend the hospitals.
‘I think this government and Hammersmith and Fulham Council are “combine harvesting” anything of social worth.’
At the same time, in an anti-working class move that would set a precedent nationally, Hammersmith and Fulham Council is also planning to bring in fixed-term tenancies for people who apply for social housing from 2013.
The west London council intends limiting tenancies to five years and cutting it to two years for 18 to 25-year-olds.
A household income cap of £40,200 will also be introduced to stop people from registering for social housing and cut the current waiting list of 10,300.
The proposals, which would come into effect next April, will be considered at a council meeting on 15 October.
The plans come after the Localism Act 2011 gave councils the power to use flexible fixed-term tenancies.
Tory Cabinet Member for Housing Councillor Andrew Johnson said: ‘We believe that the notion of a tenancy for life is outdated and that it’s wrong to expect to inherit a welfare benefit in the form of a subsidised house irrespective of housing need.
Kay Boycott, director of communications, policy and campaigns at Shelter, said: ‘Shelter research earlier this year found that renting a two bedroom home in Hammersmith and Fulham is unaffordable for families earning less than £74,100.
‘An income cap for social housing around the £40,000 mark could therefore see a huge swathe of the population locked out of a decent place to live, too well off to access social housing but not affluent enough to find an affordable place to rent privately.’
Today’s march will undoubtedly demonstrate the anger of the working class of west London and its determination to defeat the hospital closure plans.
What’s needed now is for trade unions and trade unionists to take the lead and urgently organise a West London Council of Action.
This will be able to mobilise the huge strength of the working class to defend all hospitals and housing, get ready to occupy to defeat the cuts and closure programme, and fight for a general strike to bring down the Tory-LibDem coalition government.