Christine shares this latest news from IOW Save Our NHS Group. Ed
Saturday afternoon saw a well-attended public meeting of the campaign group IW Save Our NHS.
Held at the Riverside Centre, campaign supporters heard from guest speakers campaigning to save a local hospital in north west London.
Colin Crilly and Claire Jackson-Prior of ‘Keep Off St Helier Hospital (KOSHH)’ related their experiences over recent years in campaigning to keep their local hospital open and passed on campaigning tips.
The reforms
Isle of Wight Cllrs Geoff Brodie and Karl Love then shared their experiences of local health reforms driven by the government’s Sustainability & Transformation Partnership through their membership of health scrutiny and health & wellbeing committees.
Reforms they were certain would lead to health rationing, service cutbacks, travel inconvenience and increased risk for Island residents.
Open Forum
There followed an open forum and then workshops on building the resources of the group to challenge the health reform agenda on the Island.
It was agreed to formalise the group more with monthly planning meetings.
“We must defend it against all attacks”
IW Save Our NHS organiser and founder Christine Lightbody said,
“I was delighted with the meeting which has now given us many more volunteers to drive forward our campaign. The NHS is the most previous service we have in the UK.
“We must defend it against all attacks and all so-called reforms that lead to the further marketisation/privatisation of health services. Today was a giant step in the local campaign.”
