Why we support the 999 People’s March for the NHS

Bianca Todd, who is organising the Northampton leg of the march, on why the 999 March for the NHS is so important. Click below to see this as a video:

The post war Attlee government saw Bevan put in post as health secretary and address the crisis of the health of the nation.

On the 5th July 1948, he ensured that every man, every woman and every child in the country would have access to a health service. A service that included hospitals and specialist services, medicines drugs, appliances, care of the teeth, care of the eyes, maternity services, home help services. For the first time you were able to choose your doctor.

This service was known as the NHS and as far as I am concerned, despite the propaganda trying to undermine confidence in the NHS and the government deliberately pushing it to the edge of collapse so that it can be ‘saved’ by the private sector; I think that the NHS is absolutely brilliant.

Now I am only 37 years old, and so I have no memory of a time when the National Health Service didn’t exist, however over recent years, we have seen the dismantling, the privatisation and the destruction of the NHS, which started with the Health & Social Care Act, followed by Section 75, then Clause 119 of the Care Bill. This government have legislated to put the NHS on the open market, where every single element will be up for sale, where profit will be placed before the health care of people.

Teeth and eye services already charge and we know the consequence of that. People do not go and have their eyes tested or their teeth examined, because they can’t afford to go and see an optician and pay for glasses, or do to the dentist for a check up. At a time when it is hard enough to earn money to put food on the table, the care of a person’s health slides down the ladder of importance in terms of assigning money.

We know the consequence of the privatisation of the services within the NHS. Let us look at the cleaning contracts for example. It seems like no coincidence to me that when the contract was privatised we saw the creation of MRSA and other superbugs which then required the development of drugs to manage it. The private sector has never put people first, the focus has always been about money.

Not only is the People’s March is a perfect opportunity to build support for the NHS and to join up with amazing NHS campaigners all across the country, following the basic route of the 1936 Jarrow Crusade, the People’s March is a platform for the fightback.

Why is it important for Left Unity to be involved with this march?

Since April 2013:

70% of NHS contracts have gone to the private sector

10% of A&E services are closed

A third of NHS walk-in centres are closed

Half of the 600 ambulance stations are earmarked for closure

GP surgeries are facing closure

Maternity, children, illness prevention, ambulance, mental health, dental and sexual health services are no longer required by law to be free of charge.

The baton of social justice that was handed to us by our grandparents and our great grandparents, has now been passed on. It is our duty to grasp that baton and continue to fight for an NHS for all, all people can have access to free health care which addresses all health care needs.

I would urge all Left Unity members, all Left Unity supporters, to come and join the march even if just for a mile or two, or the full 300 miles, come to the rallies, be a part of the fightback.

We all know the famous saying that “the NHS will last as long as there are the folk left to fight for it.” Let us be those folk.