Privatisation is demoralising the NHS workforce and undermining standards of care. It’s time for Ministers to listen to NHS workers and managers and end the outsourcing and privatisation of our NHS, says GMB Union as it gears up to join one of the biggest NHS demos.
Hundreds of members from GMB, the trade union for health service workers, will come together with other unions and community groups to hold a rally and march in Leeds on Saturday (30 March) alongside Yorkshire Health Campaigns Together, to demand a better deal for NHS workers and the services they provide.
Demonstrators will gather outside Leeds Art Gallery at 11.30am for a rally before embarking on a march around Leeds city centre.
GMB has long campaigned to repeal the controversial Section 75 of the Health and Social Care Act, which has led to a £10.5 billion explosion in private health contracts, and has now launched the Go Public campaign to reverse privatisation and outsourcing,
GMB Organiser for the NHS, Stacey Booth, said: “Spring has sprung but things are not so sprightly for the NHS and certainly not for the workers. Since the introduction of the NHS Health and Social Care Act in 2012 the NHS has been savaged by swathes of privatisation as the plan accelerated a market based approach to the NHS.”
“The NHS pay deal, which GMB opposed, has done nothing to attract new workers as it was alleged it would and why would it when the Nursing bursary has been scrapped. You cannot offer a sticking plaster after years of austerity and pay freezes and expect it will repair the damage.”
“When services that underpin the NHS such as mental health provision have been decimated it is not surprising that rates of violence and abuse against our members rise. With cuts to the police force by some 20,000 officers and with an ever creaking criminal justice system, patients are being failed and NHS staffs are feeling the force.”
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For further comment contact: Stacey Booth on 07813-541788 or Katherine Mitchell on 07813-541792
#Scrap Section 75
https://www.gmb.org.uk/campaign/scrap-section-75
Go Public 5 Key Demands:
https://www.gmb.org.uk/campaign/go-public
