health and social care

At the end of January some of our members joined a demonstration against the privitisation of another NHS service; patient transport. This ambulance service is being privitised to cut costs by the joint Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG’s), who decide how to spend the health budget locally. The demonstration was timed before a CCG meeting to show anger at the imminent sell-off.

Not only is this another dismantling of the NHS and introducing profiteering into healthcare; there are potentially large job losses, changes to terms and conditions for those transferred, changes of criteria for patients eligible for the services and no guarantee of the same standards of care, as a company runs dispatch and then sub contracts the transportation.

During a September Saturday Brighton SolFed held a network and skills day covering; the immigration act and healthcare, the attack on benefits, fighting wage theft and anarchists on austerity. This full day, including a mighty lunch prepared by members, maintained a constant level of debate and information, concluding in practical action points to continue agitating around Brighton and beyond.

A dozen people attended, with a few new faces introduced. Though the intention was to have a broader participation, the level of contributions and emphasis on what can be done rather than purely information, made for a quality day.

Healthcare should be available to all. The need for care outweighs any excuse to restrict access to healthcare, for example whether they have the ability to pay or where they have come from. Yet the Immigration Act of 2014 is trying to reverse this. It affects many areas of life such as housing and health. The aim of it is to punish those who are vulnerable. It is part of an ideology that is racist, and aims to divert attention away from those who benefit from capitalism, stigmatising other areas of society.

This pamphlet, written by members of Brighton SolFed’s Health and Social Care Network, with support from Brighton Migrant Solidarity and Docs Not Cops, looks at how it is affecting the NHS and how it aims to make health workers do the dirty work of the government by policing the people they treat. This is through administrative oppression creating gatekeepers to health.

The Brighton SolFed Health & Social Care network holds drop-in surgeries on the last Monday of each month. The next one will be on Monday 27th July, 7 - 9 pm at the Saint Georges Tavern, near Sussex County Hospital (33 Upper Sudeley Street, Kemp Town, BN2 1HE).

We recently launched our new pamphlet on the implications of the Immigration Act for NHS workers, including ways to collectively sabotage the attempt to make frontline health workers gatekeepers to the state's anti-migrant agenda.

We welcome all workers in the sector, whether NHS, private, or voluntary / charity.

The Immigration Act of 2014 has far reaching strands that pushes society further to the right. It affects many areas of life such as housing and health. In health, the government want clinical, administrative and auxiliary staff to enquire to and report on the immigration status of patients, which could lead to charging or the withholding of healthcare services.

The Brighton Solfed Health and Social Care network holds monthly drop in surgeries, on the last Monday of each month. The next one will be on Monday 25th May, 7 - 9 pm at Saint Georges Inn, (33 Upper Sudeley Street, Kemp Town, BN2 1HE).
If you have any workplace issues that you would like to talk about with Solfed members working in health or in social care, then come along this Bank Holiday Monday.

Brighton Health & Social Care poster for NHS strike

The call for 1% is a distraction from the real issues. We need more than 1%, we need to stop the privatising of our health care, better staffing, access to free health care for all, we need to be active in our work places, stop asking and start demanding and organising ourselves.
Join Brighton’s Health & Social Care Network.

Poster to publicise the Health & Social Care network set up by Brighton Solfed

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt will make a decision on the future of Lewisham hospital at the beginning of February. If he pushes through the cuts, we need to meet them with a campaign of mass civil disobedience and direct action!

The campaign to save the hospital has done a fantastic job at showing the government how unpopular Kershaw's plans are, but the whole campaign depends upon the government being reasonable and listening to people's concerns. How likely is that?

If Hunt won't listen to reasoned argument and decides to close parts of Lewisham Hospital, the only thing left we can do is take action – block streets, occupy - anything that distrupts business as usual and forces Hunt to listen.

We are calling for people to assemble at the roundabout in Lewisham after the announcement, to either celebrate or show our anger and start taking action!