THE NORTH EAST London Council of Action won big support yesterday at the picket of Chase Farm Hospital with its demand that the hospital is occupied to stop its closure.
Cheers went up from the picket as car after car honked their horns in support, while patients, doctors, nurses and hospital staff joined in the picket and made it clear that they supported the call to occupy.
Bill Rogers, secretary of the North East London Council of Action, said: ‘We are having a lively picket today.
‘Everyone we are speaking to opposes the closures at Chase Farm.
‘Lots of people are signing up and buying tickets for our conference to organise the occupation of Chase Farm Hospital.
‘I learnt from the ambulance staff that yesterday the A&E at North Middlesex Hospital was closed, and all blue light ambulances were diverted to Chase.
‘Right outside the hospital today you have got a continuous traffic jam that is at least a mile long and this is what patients at Chase Farm would be stuck in, in order to get to Barnet Hospital.
‘We want local trade unions, firefighters, ambulance staff, local unions like the BMA and RCN and Unite to support the occupation and to bring big delegations to our conference on October 1st.’
A member of the maternity staff, one of the departments threatened with closure, said: ‘The labour ward in Barnet Hospital is always closing and pregnant ladies in labour are referred to Chase to give birth.
‘If we were closed I don’t know where they would go.
‘Barnet is very overstretched, it’s manic, and Chase Farm is like an overflow.
‘In the news they announced last week about the closure of Chase Farm Hospital, but none of the staff have been informed about what is going to happen.
‘We will support the occupation of Chase Farm Hospital.’
Paul Childs came down from the Tulse Hill Young Socialists to join the picket.
He said: ‘The Young Socialists is for defending the NHS and we will be bringing all our members to the conference.
‘We need loads of young people when we occupy the hospital and the YS members are keen to get involved.
‘We just need to keep this hospital open and make sure it does not close.’
