Help save the NHS with the Exeter Anti-Cuts Alliance save the NHS Day of Action

By PRSD, on Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Exeter Anti-Cuts Alliance: save the NHS Day of Action

There’s a Defend the NHS Day of Action in Exeter on Saturday, May 29, organised by the Exeter Anti-Cuts Alliance, with a special guest appearance from the Grim Reaper (he’s tearing himself away from a chess match, apparently).

To pay for their ideological cuts… sorry, to save the bankers… erm… to pay for the foolishness of allowing capitalists to run things on their own, Grim is popping along because the Lib Dems and Conservatives have, according to the Exeter Anti -Cuts Alliance, put a ‘scythe to our services’.

Yes, we know there’s a deficit, and so did the Lib Dems, who proposed a go slow on deep cuts. But giddy on the prospect of power and with their negotiators bargaining hard for the missed opportunity that turned into AV, they forsook all their economic election vows and plunged into the cuts.

Along the way, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg supported Andrew Lansley’s reforms to the NHS up until the AV campaign turned nasty (notice, it was the personal rather than political which incited him to action).

Exeter Anti-Cuts Alliance says Lansley’s reforms aim to “give away the NHS to private healthcare conglomerates and introduce competition on the basis of price. This will lead to private ‘social enterprises’ cherry picking profitable work and leaving the more difficult cases to what remains of the NHS – rendering it less viable financially.

“The Tories promised ‘no cuts to the NHS’ on their election billboards, but now they are planning to cut £20 Billion from its budgets (about 20%). Already 900 redundancies have been announced at the RD&E hospital in Exeter. GP’s will be put in charge of purchasing instead of focusing on looking after their patients.”

Mark McSheehy, chair of the protest group and healthcare professional said: “None of Lansley’s plans make any sense unless you look at it from the point of view of opportunities for profiteering by huge healthcare corporations. People who can’t afford to pay would get second-class service in future and have to wait much longer for treatment.”

• Join Exeter Anti-Cuts Alliance in Bedford Square this Saturday from 12 to 2pm and show the Grim Reaper our NHS is not for sale!