[Since not a penny has yet been saved…]

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Since not a penny has yet been saved at st. Columba's, the DMT is frantically trying to increase and implement the other cuts planned for the bigger, less vulnerable hospitals • in Paddington and North Kensington.

These take the form of leaving vacancies unfilled, axing overtime, introducing new rotas and limiting expenditure on advertising for new staff.

It now seems very unlikely that the authorities have succeeded in their aim of saving most of the £400,000 by 5 April, the end of the financial year.

Cash limits

The 'cash-limit' system means that the remaining amount will have to be found out of the allocation for the new financial year..

But the local management's problems have only just begun.

In the recent White Paper that accompanied the so-called neutral' pre-election budget, the Labour government has stated its intention to make sure that any pay increases above 7% in the public sector will be paid for out of existing revenue allocațions, by cuts in services and jobs.

Tories promise the same ruthless policies if elected.

Add to this the effect of increases in oil prices and the certainty of accelerating inflation and it is clear that we are about to see the struggle against cuts spread to every NHS hospital and a heightening of the consciousness of all hospital workers of the real meaning of 'cash-limits'. public expenditure cuts, resources re-allocation and the policy of low pay.

Last but not least, the AHA announced at. the meeting on 11 April the 'discovery' of a £450,000 deficit on its expenditure for the financial year just ended (5 April 1979), apparently because the DHSS was refusing to HOW TO FIGHT THE CUTS A WSL pamphli based on our expi sector allocate this amount to cover London Weighting payments.

In their resistance to the closure of St. Columba's the hospital staff, mainly NUPE members, and the District Joint Shop Stewards Committee, (DJSSC) have received minimal assistance from the NUPE apparatus.

At the meeting of staff called on 6 April by the DJSSC, NUPE full-time officer Mike Cunningham opened the meeting by declaring that he knew nothing about the hospital and asking the politically inexperienced staff what they thought he should do to help them.

This statement on its own is an indication of the lack of leadership given by the NUPE full-timers, Divisional Council and NEC to a hospital that might have been closed many weeks ago.

While the NUPE leadership have been treating St. Columba's as just another hospital ciosure and working out various face-saving, schemes with the Labour 1 government, the hospital workers and shop stewards have kept the hospital open and at the same time obtained token support from Westminster and Camden Trades Councils, the Greater London Association of Trades Councils and the SE Region of the TUC.

At the NUPE conference of London public sector shop stewards on 15 March, Samaritan Hospital shop steward, Arthur Steele; successfully moved a resolution calling for supporting strike action if any step was taken to force through the closure of St. Columba's.

Though the immediate threat of closure has receded, it is likely soon to prove necessary to transform these pledges of support from paper resolutions to concrete solidarity action.

How to fight the cuts