600 at Defend the Whittington Hospital Meeting

Tonight 600 people crammed into the Archway Methodist Church. The meeting, chaired by Jeremy Corbyn MP,  heard speakers from Keep Our NHS Public, Defend the Whittington Hospital Campaign and other local MPs outline the next steps in the struggle to defend the services provided at the Whittington Hospital. The Board of the  Hospital has agreed to sell off £17million of buildings, leading to ward closures, massive reduction of maternity provision, loss of wards for the elderly, total loss of staff accommodation. But local people are refusing to accept this. As writer and activist Owen Jones put it in summing up the mood in the room, “You’ve picked a fight with the wrong local community”.

In scenes echoing the mass mobilizations in the Lewisham and Ealing Hospital campaigns people turned out in freezing weather in their hundreds. The main hall was full to overflowing, all the other rooms where speaker systems has been installed were also full. Many people had to try and listen from the lobby.

The anger of local residents was palpable and many spoke in very moving terms of what the hospital represented to them . Children spoke of the care they had received in the paediatrics department.

Defend Whittington Hospital Campaign meeting

More meetings and a march are planned but importantly all speakers stressed the necessity of linking up with other health campaigns and building a mass movement to defend the NHS.