‘I AM joining the fight to elect Jonty Leff because we must defend the NHS, defend Homerton Hospital and defend the Pathology Lab,’ RCN nurse Akosua Odame said outside the hospital yesterday morning during the campaign for the Workers Revolutionary Party candidate for Hackney South and Shoreditch.
The campaign team spoke to doctors, nurses, midwives and patients as they went in to work, calling for them to vote WRP in the election and kick the Tories out. She added: ‘They want to outsource the Pathology Lab to a private company. If you have an emergency, the reason we have a Pathology Lab on site is that you do not have to wait hours to get the results of the patient’s sample.
‘Without the sample results, we would not be able to administer medication to the patient as we cannot figure out what is wrong until the samples come back. This means that if it is outsourced to a private company and the samples are sent off and we are forced to wait until the results are returned, in emergency cases a lot of patients will die because we cannot operate until we know what is wrong.’
Registered Mental Nurse (RCM) Harriet Greenidge, also in the RCN union added: ‘We have to defend our Homerton Hospital, it cares for so many needy people. We care for a lot of people with mental health problems who need these services. We have had so many cuts, but we have to keep these services open for the local community.
‘We are balloting for strike action over our pay which has been frozen for six long years. Now they are offering us a 1% pay rise, but inflation is above 1% so what they are offering us in effect is a pay cut!
‘It is really good that Jonty Leff is standing in the election. I buy the News Line paper off him every Wednesday and have done for months. I do not think that private business should be in the NHS. I do not believe in privatisation. The NHS must stay with the people. That is why it was created in the first place. Why is this government taking the NHS away from the people? This government must go.’
Natalie Privitera, a student midwife in the RCM union, told News Line: ‘I am a second year so I still get the student bursary. The first years who are starting in September will not get any bursary whatsoever. This is a hard course and not getting funding does not help. You are on placement most of the year so it is impossible to work while you are studying.
‘Students who start in September will have to pay tuition fees, whereas our years had the bursary to cover that cost. We are short of midwives nationally and this will just put students off from going into this profession. I have joined this party and the campaign because I want the student bursary restored.
‘Even more than that, the entire system of capitalism is unfair and it must go. This system doesn’t give people the opportunity to better themselves. We need a system that is run by us, that would help us develop society a lot.’
Nurse Tina Owusu said: ‘We must stand up and fight for the NHS, it is the future of our health service. That is why I agree with the WRP. I will support this party because it stands up and fights for the NHS.’
