[DON'T GO mio PR struggle agalnst In what…]

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DON'T GO mio PR struggle agalnst In what is likely to be one of the first major battles against the Tory cuts in public spending, hospital workers and trade unionists in the Westminster area of London are preparing for action against cuts in the local health service.

Drastic The drastic scale of health cuts proposed in this area was made clear at a special meeting of the Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster Area Health Authority on Thursday 26 July, which was lobbied by over 200 workers from hospitals in the area.

This AHA whic h has adopted a poli of Norking within the gover nment's imposed cash limits, is now desperate to reduce health spending in the area as quickly as possible.

Huge Every package of proposals they have put forward over the past year has met with solid resistance from organised hospital trades unionists.

Because of the huge opposition both in the hospital and the community, they have so far been unable to close St. Mary's Hospital, Harrow Road, and the same pressure has prevented them from going ahead with the closure of Hereford Lodge recovery unit and St. Columba's terminal hospital, all located in the north-west district of the area.

The battle over St. Mary's, Harrow Road, reached a high point during the last two weeks when the District Management Team announced a package which would involve the closure of the casualty and several other departments at the hospital.

Immediate

The response within the hospital was immediate.

At an emergency mass meeting, the staff voted unanimously to fight the closure by continuing to work at the hospital, and not accepting jobs elsewhere.

The District Joint Shop Stewards Committee continued to give a principled lead against the cuts by calling for occupation of all threatened wards and facilities in the district and demanding that the London trade union leadership call an all-London conference and prepare a course of industrial action by health and public sector workers in defence of St. Mary's.

Ignore As well as this, the local ambulance drivers' branch of NUPE which covers Camden station and St. John's Wood accident station voted to continue carrying patients to iET POCALST the casualty and to ignore alt instructions from the AHA and their own management concerning the closure of the hospital.

Also, they have adopted a policy of diverting as many patients as possible for admission to St. Mary's to prevent the wards from being closed.

Scurry back

This wave of resistance forced the District Management Team to scurry back to their calculating machines and come up with a new scheme.

The item on cuts was removed from the agenda at the AHA meeting on 11 July, and, following a frantic series of meetings with the region and the DHSS, the new proposals were announced for last Thursday's special meeting.

The AHA are now in desperate straits. Resistance to the cuts coupled with the Tories' decision not to exempt the NHS from increasęd VAT charges have led to a situation where the Area has overspent their allocated budget by £2 million-an amount which they and the gradual closure of wards:

Whilst backing down for the moment on St. Mary's-hoping to whittle down resistance there more gradually-they have turned their attention to hospitals where they feel the opposition is less well organised.

First on the list in the new package is Athlone House recovery unit on Hampstead Heath, which is to be closed down completely by September This will be accompanied by the rapid run-down and closure of Paddington Green children's hospital and St. Columba'spossibly within the next two months.

Every hospital

Also, ward closures and staff reductions were decided on in virtually every hospital in the district, including the closure of six wards at St. Stephen's hospital in Chelsea.

The tactics of the AHA are now obvious.

They are attempting to avoid direct confrontation with the Harrow Road, and St. Mary's Praed Street, and form Hospital Defence Committees, in order to organise the resistance against ward closures and staff rundown.

Reverse cuts Whilst these steps are vitally important, it is essential that they are linked to building for a massive mobilisation of health and public sector workers throughout London to reverse the cuts in this area once and for all.

The Tory cuts can only be reversed by mass action, and the trade union leadership-who have so far refused even to take the initial step of organising a London conference to discuss action on the cuts-must be forced to give a clear lead against the Tories.

The "fight" to reverse the policy of the AHA by discussion and consultation is now lost, and the labour movement 'representatives' who sit on the Authority should be made to resign and begin to organise strike action against the cuts