Thank you very much to the Defend the Whittington Hospital Coalition for having me to speak at their rally today. As I told the audience outside the hospital, whatever the results of the general and local elections on May 6th, we in the Green Party will be there on May 7th to hold the new government to account on the Whittington.
And elected Greens everywhere - including (fingers crossed) one or more Green MPs in the House of Commons for the first time ever - will continue to oppose privatisation of the NHS in all its forms. Keep our NHS public!
PS The Labour party issued a new pronouncement today (a week before the election) on the future of the Whittington. While this is being trumpeted as the hospital being 'saved', local people, who have already endured months of uncertainty, still don't quite know where they stand. According to the Labour health minister it is for 'clinicians' to say whether the A&E and maternity units should close. But which clinicians? While consultants at the Whittington have come out against the closures, Royal Colleges speaking on behalf of two-thirds of doctors today called for mass closures of A&E and children's departments in order to achieve the £20 billion cuts which Labour and the Tories say are required. We in the Green Party will be watching very carefully indeed to see how things develop after the election.
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