The Coalition Government has produced its White Paper on the future of the Health Service: Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS.
Pardon the pun but there is a health warning here – liberation in the Coalition dictionary of course means privatisation!
‘Liberating’ the NHS from the people and selling it off to the highest bidder.
It gives a rosy picture of GP consortia commissioning services (why shouldn’t my lovely GP have more say!) and getting rid of bureaucracy (we don’t need administration staff!) cutting back management (I don’t like my managers so let’s get rid of them!).
Let’s not be fooled! This is an attack on all of us. The White Paper doesn’t mention ambulance by name but dig deep enough and you will find the threat to us is real. Our Service, our pensions, our jobs, our NHS.
Consultation on the White Paper will begin soon and once we have details we will publish how all Unison members can get involved in this early stage.
From White Paper to Red Blankets! It still amazes me after all these years how the shortage of blankets at times still plagues our Service. There is no doubting the vast inprovements that the LAS has gone through in the past decade (the Union has been at the forefront) but all that means nothing when at the end of the day a crew on station cannot find a blanket, or a bit of every day kit, to go out with. In fact the frustations are so great that the improvements can’t be seen. That doesn’t help anybody. This problem has been raised with the Union once again and something has to be done. We have to find a solution to this and we need members’ imput, so all ideas are welcome. Speak to your Senior Sector Rep or Branch Officer.
It reminds me of the rhyme ‘For Want of a Nail’.
“For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.”
Replace the word ‘nail’ with ‘blanket’ and you get the picture? Work the rest out for yourself!Â
Eric Roberts
Branch Secretary.
Â
Â
