27.07.1995

Dundee health update

AS A RESULT of vigorous campaigning by communists and others, the Dundee Campaign against Hospital Cuts and Closures has been formed. DCHCC is intended to be a broad based campaign with the following aims:

• To fight against any cuts in NHS beds and any threat to healthworkers’ jobs incurred through the cuts.
• To fight for the suspension the of planned centralisation of all major healthcare at Ninewells Hospital - which means the closure of the Dundee Royal Infirmary, Kings Cross Hospital and Dundee Limb Fitting Centre.
• To campaign for the abolition of the trusts and for the restoration of a publicly owned and democratically controlled NHS.

Along with ourselves, the campaign is sponsored to date by Unison 7012 branch, Dundee Trades Council, Scottish Militant Labour and the Dundee Campaign against the Criminal Justice Act. A letter has been sent to all potential affiliates.

DCHCC intends to expose the vicious cuts planned by the trust bosses and to mobilise working class action against the closures.

There is massive support for the campaign and thousands of signatures are being collected on CPGB petitions each week. There are however two major obstacles to the campaign - the ambivalence of the Labour Party (it appears John McAllion, Labour’s Scottish health spokesman and MP for Dundee East, supports campaigns like these in every other Scottish city, but local party bosses have warned him off the Dundee campaign); and the hostility of Unison officials who have accepted, without a fight, the closure of DRI and who have publicly condemned our campaign.

Neither of these problems is insurmountable. If the campaign is taken onto the streets and housing estates, the response will force the Labour Party to do more than have cosy chats with the trust behind closed doors.

We must also appeal directly to rank and file healthworkers. They must get active and remove their rotten leadership or their own job may be next.

The summer months are a time for planning and preparation for a series of meetings, publicity events and leafleting, leading up to a demonstration on Saturday September 23.

The CPGB will use the forthcoming Lochee West by-election to campaign against the Labour Party, particularly on health issues.

Mary Ward