There is no doubt that the victory over the U-turns of the Labour Secretary of State for Health is very largely the result of our non-party campaign to Defend and save the Accident and Emergency, Maternity, Trauma and Paediatric Services at the Whittington Hospital, and to oppose privatisation and cuts in any other NHS hospital.

Our role was crucial for the following reasons: it was a united non-party campaign of residents, hospital workers and other trade unionists – Our Hospital, Your Jobs – and representation from other local campaigns and political parties.

Almost everyone we spoke to supported our campaign. We got at least 16,000 signatures through leafleting and talking to thousands of local people. The popularity of this campaign made it a hot election issue, where all mainstream political parties wanted to be involved – some more directly involved with us than others. The local press supported the campaign and the Islington Tribune, in particular, played a huge role in helping us to build for our march.

We organised a stunning march on 27th February, where 5,000 people demonstrated their opposition. This was the biggest local march for decades, and probably the biggest ever march for a hospital. This was also the major turning point as it got massive media coverage. We organised a public meeting to launch our forthcoming day of action and rally, on Thursday 29th April, one week before the general election. Having asked several leaders of political parties and their spokespeople to speak, only Andrew Lansley, Tory Shadow Health Minister accepted the invitation.

At this point the Conservatives, Greens and Liberal Democrats had said that they wanted to scrap the review. Emily Thornberry is in a marginal seat. She has supported the campaign and been pressurising Andy Burnham, Labour Health Secretary, who had previously supported the PCT review. After Andrew Lansley accepted our invitation, Andy Burnham told Emily Thornberry on Tuesday 27th April that he had changed his mind, that he did not wish the A and E to close (Since then Shirley has received (on 29th April) an email from Mike O’Brien who claims that he too supports the A and E, and that the papers were only part of a discussion not proposals (a term used by Rachel Tyndall, chief Exec of the north Central London PCT).

We won because we established a mass campaign, one that was initiated by Jeremy Corbyn in Islington and later by Lynne Featherstone, in Hornsey and Wood Green, which also included hospital workers. We won because we timed it right during the election period. We won because we are cross-party, we got the right political and people. We won because we worked our guts out, we talked to loads and loads of people, had a great website, Facebook and email list and visual identity.

But this is not the end. We hope this victory isn’t an electoral gimmick. Will they stick to their promises? Who will win the election will determine what happens and what is cut next? In health terms, the cuts have already happened to the Cinderella of the Health Service, mental health.

We are considering spearheading a London-wide campaign. What’s next: On Monday 10th May we will be holding a public meeting to decide where we go, what we do next. We might be thinking about leading a London-wide campaign. Please join us at the Whittington Community Centre, Yerbury Road, N19 at 7.00 pm

Shirley Franklin
Chair of the Defend the Whittington Hospital Coalition

Addendum from Dave Plummer:

With perfectly bad timing my PC was struck by a virus over the weekend, hence the lack of updates and emails etc. Sorry about that. I’ve sorted it out now and will be updating the site over the next few days with links to press articles, TV coverage etc.

The Royal Free’s A&E has been shut today thanks to a power failure.

This is from the BBC News site:

A London hospital has partially re-opened its accident and emergency department following a power failure.

The Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, north London, said it was still diverting ambulances after “a major internal incident” at 0845 BST.

A statement said the electrical fault had been corrected and main power supply has been restored but was still being tested.

A hospital spokesman said the A&E department was seeing walk-in patients.

She said: “The mains power supply has now been re-established.

“Although the power supply has returned, it is being tested and A&E will not be re-opened to ambulances until the trust is assured that the power supply is secure.”

It’s just as well the Whittington’s there isn’t it?

We had a good couple of hours with the stall outside the Nag’s Head, Holloway on Saturday morning, collecting more signatures, distributing flyers and spreading the word about the Day of Action.  We’ve now got well over ten thousand petition signatures on paper and over 1500 online.

Day Of Action, 29th April

Things are coming along really well for the Day of Action with several different groups and individuals organising events for the day. Hopefully the campaign to save our A&E will be visible in offices, shops and on the streets right across north London. If you have, or need, any ideas for activities please contact us at defendwhittington@googlemail.com. Let us know if you’ve planned something so we can arrange some coverage.

There are more details about the day here and we’ve published a flyer for the day here.

Press Coverage

There’s been a lot of coverage of the meeting with Rachel Tyndall on Monday 29th.

I need to apologise to the Haringey Indepenedent. They have provided a lot of coverage but unfortunately slipped under my radar and haven’t appeared on the site. Sorry.

Hornsey Journal, 03/04/2010: Whittington Hospital: tough choices to be made, says health boss

Islington Tribune, 02/04/2010: Woman who has Whittington A&E fate in her hands

Haringey Independent, 29/03/2010: Senior doctors oppose Whittington Hospital A&E closure

Video

Another excellent video about the march and rally.

The filmmakers who volunteered their time to make the film were:

• Justine Gordon-Smith
• Chris Hall
• Grave Livingstone
• Maggie Pallat.

Over 100 people attended the fantastic meeting tonight where we discussed plans for the next stage of the campaign. The main focus will be a day of action on Thursday 29th April, one week before the probable general election date. The day of action has been arranged for a weekday so that people who work in the areas served by the Whittington can participate in their workplaces. There will also be a rally between 12.00 and 14.00 om the day.

We are going to attend the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) demonstration outside Parliament at 11.00 on Wednesday 24th March. Local PCS branches officially support the campaign and this is a good opportunity to get the attention of politicians and highlight the connections between the Whittington campaign and that of the wider Public Sector.

Rachel Tyndall will be attending a meeting at Islington Town Hall on Monday 29th March. We should have a delegation at the meeting. Placards outside at 19.00 then in to the meeting at 19.30.

There was much discussion from the floor and Jeremy Corbyn provided an update about activities in Parliament.

Islingtonnow tweeted from the meeting (and blew my attempts out of the water.) You can read their live account of the meeting here.

Much more was discussed and minutes from the meeting will be on the site soon.

Sorry for the  somewhat perfunctory nature of this post: your web chap is very , very tired.

The BBC have footage of Lynne Featherstone’s Westminster Hall debate, ‘London Hospitals’, from 17th March 2010 (a transcription from TheyWorkForYou was posted here the other day.). It includes contributions from Jeremy Corbyn, Health Minister Mike O’Brien and MPs from around London. At 1hr 30mins there’s quite a lot to get through but it’s well worth a watch if you have the time.

It’s available on the BBC site here.

Please remember to get along to tomorrow’s meeting if you can, 19.00 at the Whittington Park Community Centre. There are more details here.

We have a new poster available for download and popping in your window, on your car’s back shelf, printing on vinyl and using to cover an umbrella… Whittington Poster

Jeremy Corbyn’s Early Day Motion (EDM 87) has so far been signed by only 19 MPs. If your MP hasn’t signed it yet please ask them to! You can get find you MP and send them an email directly from  Theyworkforyou.com.

Early Day Motion

EDM 87 WHITTINGTON HOSPITAL 18.11.2009 Corbyn, Jeremy 19 signatures

Abbott, Diane         Clark, Katy         Cohen, Harry
Cryer, Ann         Dobson, Frank         Featherstone, Lynne
Gerrard, Neil         Hoey, Kate         Hopkins, Kelvin
Illsley, Eric         Jackson, Glenda         Jenkins, Brian
McDonnell, John         Meale, Alan         Simpson, Alan
Thornberry, Emily         Wareing, Robert N         Wyatt, Derek

That this House recognises the Whittington Hospital is a valuable asset to healthcare in North London and has recently undergone a major rebuilding programme; notes that the Whittington receives into its accident and emergency department alone approximately 80,000 patients annually and offers accessible services including maternity, neo-natal, cancer, day surgery and more; is very concerned to hear ongoing talk of a threat to or merger of any of the Whittington’s major services with the Royal Free Hospital, thereby reducing the viability of the Whittington’s continued existence as a separate institution, and of its services to local people in Islington, Haringey and Camden; and calls upon NHS London to ensure the continued existence of the Whittington Hospital inclusive of its major services.

The Early Day Motion itself is online here: EDM 87.

We have the advantage that there is an election coming. Unfortunately all the major parties have threatened to slash public sector spending. We have to remind them who pays who’s wages and convince them that healthcare, along with other public services, is more important than the Trident replacement.

Islington NHS Statistics

We have received a copy of Islngton NHS’s 2009 report ‘Health Facts For Islington’ which makes for interesting reading. It’s on site here: Health in Islington – The Facts.

Remember to come along to the meeting on Monday where we will be discussing the next steps of the campaign and, if it’s your sort of thing, to join our Facebook group and follow us on Twitter (links are on the right of this page.)

The full debate can be read at They Work For You.

I’m sorry this site hasn’t been updated for a while. I’ve been quite spectacularly busy but will try to get more content up over the next few days.

Please remember to come along to the campaign meeting on Monday.

Congratulations to the Defend Whittington Hospital Coalition for the superb organization of a brilliant demonstration; thanks also to the local police for their cooperation and efficiency in making sure that the march passed off safely and effectively.

The 5,000 of us who marched on Saturday represented people from Hetty Bower, aged 104, down to parents with new born babies. We represented every age, outlook and ethnic community that our borough has to offer.

We did so, because we are passionate in defending a National Health Service free at the point of use, and our local hospital at the Whittington. The A&E alone deals with over 80,000 emergencies per year and the hospital as a whole of course handles many other consultations and elective surgery. Any closure of the A&E department would, literally, cut off the lifeblood of the hospital.

The regional NHS planning group (London North Central) appear to be unaccountable and unconcerned, as they try to centralise services on two major hospitals, thus leaving Haringey and Islington with no major A&E departments of their own.

I have raised the issue several times in parliament, and I will continue to pressurize ministers and the House to understand that health officials have no business making plans for reducing expenditure, and absolutely no business taking away crucial local services that are so obviously loved and valued by everybody.

As the MP for North Islington, I am very clear where my priorities lie, keep the Whittington A&E!

Lynn Featherstone (Liberal Democrat MP and instrumental in North Central London NHS’s plan leaving their smokeless smokey back rooms and reaching the Whittington’s public) organised a public meeting tonight with Rachel Tyndall in attendance. This is the Islington Tribune report of the meeting:

SAVE OUR WHITTINGTON: Health chiefs face fresh grilling but give no guarantee consultation will save A & E

By RICHARD OSLEY

PATIENTS celebrating the success of the Save The Whittington Hospital march were brought down to earth last night when key administrators warned that widespread opposition might not be enough to stop accident and emergency services being axed.

At a meeting organised by Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone in Hornsey, neither Rachel Tyndall, Chairwoman of the North Central London (NCL) review panel or Richard Sumray, chairman of the Haringey Primary Care Trusy, could offer any assurance that the facility would be protected should a negative public response be confirmed in official consultation survey.
Mr Sumray would not go stronger than saying the views gathered in the upcoming survey would be “hugely important”.
Members of the 300 strong audience in the Greig Academy school hall had wanted a pledge that if there was no support for an overhaul of hospitals in north London, the plans would be abandoned.
An annoyed grimace fell across Mr Sumray’s face on the main stage when it was suggested by a heckler that he did not understand the question. “In health, people are always very resistant to change, generally they like what they’ve got,” he said. “So any change we have to make needs to have a compelling case. I am not going to say – and noone would say – what will happen as a consequence of consultation. All of the comments will be taken into account but I can’t tell you what the final decision will be now.”
The accident and emergency department and the maternity unit face the act in a wave of £500 million cuts and a re-organisation which will see patients treated in new, smaller GP surgeries. The Defend Whittington Hospital coalition organised one of the biggest marches in recent memory in north London on Saturday afternoon, with help from unions and the New Journal. We have run a Save Our Whittington campaign since November.
Ms Tyndall, who has so far born much of the brunt of the anger surrounding the campaign against the cuts, told the meeting she was proud “to be a public servant” working for the NHS, but said it was her job to test the private market over health services.
“We have all read in the newspapers about the public sector deficit,” she said. “We have to get the best value for tax-payers money. It’s all of ours money and we have to make sure its spent in the wisest possible way.”
Back on the subject of the future of the Whittington specifically, she admitted there was a chance that ambulances in the future could drive “past the front door of the hospital and go to an alternative hospital instead”, if one set of suggested changes were introduced.
When the audience murmured that the Royal Free in Hampstead was already too busy and unable to cope with thousands more patients, Ms Tyndall said that if hospitals worked in a more “efficient and productive way, there would be greater capacity”.
She added: “I don’t know what will happen because we haven’t yet made a decision about the Whittington Hospital.”
Ms Featherstone, the Hornsey and Wood Green MP who was in the front line of marchers on Saturday when 5,000 protetsters stopped traffic in Holloway Road on their way to the hospital forecourt, said: “I don’t think my guests see things in the same way – and that’s putting things mildly. Nobody I have spoken to either in this room or out there, thinks these proposals are a good idea. Given that, why don’t they refocus on keeping it open and making it work.”

Please visit the Islington Tribune site to read more about their support for the campaign and comment on the story.

http://www.islingtontribune.com/news/2010/mar/save-our-whittington-health-chiefs-face-fresh-grilling-give-no-guarantee-consultation-

Many thanks for everything you have all done to contribute towards Saturday’s march, which was a fantastic success. We estimate there were about five thousand people walking along Holloway Road to the Hospital, including many nurses and doctors who work there but are unable to show their support publicly. Many of those walking had never been on a march before, and we are delighted that Saturday has successfully launched the Coalition’s public campaign and made us a real force in this debate. NHS officials can be in no doubt that the entire population of Islington and surrounding boroughs will not accept cuts that would tear the heart out of the Whittington Hospital and reduce services to those who need them most.

We are really grateful to all of you for your help, it just shows what we can all achieve by working together!

We also had excellent press coverage, not only local papers but TV as well. If you missed any of the TV coverage, you will be pleased to know we were the lead story on both BBC and ITV regional news, and Shirley was interviewed live on the BBC at 12.00.

Here’s a link to her interview (we don’t know how long this will stay up):  Protesters in rally ‘to save A&E’

This is the coverage from  ITV’s London Tonight (sorry about the advertising at the start!): Hospital cuts

There’s more BBC coverage here on YouTube:

And some press coverage by the local newspapers:

Islington Gazette: Thousands of people march to save The Whittington Hospital A&E

Camden New Journal: Thousands march for the Whittington Hospital

Ham & High: March to save Whittington A&E draws 5,000 protesters

The Camden New Journal made this video about the day:

There is a long way to go still though, and we are now thinking about what else we need to do in the run up to the consultation, which is due in September. To that end we are organising a big campaigning meeting which will take place on Monday 22 March at 7.00pm at the Whittington Community Centre, Yerbury Road, N19. If you can come and join in with ideas for how to keep this issue alive in people’s minds and in the press over the next few months, and also ideas for challenging the thinking behind the proposed cuts, please come to this one-off meeting. If you can’t please email us with your ideas – we are a Coalition and value everyone’s contribution.

If you want to get more involved in general planning the next meeting will take place at the Whittington Community Centre next Monday 8 March at 7.00pm.

We look forward to seeing you at our meetings. Onwards and upwards!

Shirley Franklin and Zozi Goodman

Joint Chairs, Defend the Whittington Hospital Coalition

www.dwhc.org.uk