Heart Unit Protestors Take to Belgrave Road in Pouring Rain

The NHS is in crisis, and there can be little doubt that it is all because our government refuses to fund it properly.

Estimates suggest there will be a £22 billion funding gap by 2020, while current proposed cuts already mean that local hospitals face losing £451 million from their annual budget, with the threatened closure of the A&E at Leicester General Hospital looming on the horizon.

As part of this ongoing program of cuts, NHS England is presently attempting to close down three heart units across the country, one in Leicester, one in London, and another in Manchester.

Government officials tasked with stealing our services try to dress up their attacks as help, saying they will improve service provision, but everyone can see through this shallow lie.

Earlier today, over a hundred people marched up and down Belgrave Road for over an hour, in spite of heavy rain, demanding that the government leave our city’s vital heart unit at Glenfield hospital alone.

Sadly, this is not the first time that the people of Leicester have had to fight to save Glenfield heart unit. Today’s protest was organised by eighteen-year-old Ria Pahwa, who had organised an identical protest almost exactly four years ago. In that instance the popular campaign to oppose the closure of Leicester’s heart unit repelled the government’s attack, and so yet again we must make sure we succeed again.

Like last time round, the so-called consultation is attempting to pit different heart units against each other. Therefore, it is clear that to be successful the campaign must continue to oppose the closure of any heart units. The NHS must be taken out of the hand of private profiteers and completely renationalised as a more lasting solution. In this way our health services can be funded properly, and allowed to grow, not shrink.

At today’s protest leaflets were distributed advertising what should be a huge public meeting on Saturday September 24 (Leicester Adult Education Centre, LE1 6HL) from 2-4pm. This will then be used as a stepping stone to building a vibrant rally in Leicester on Saturday October 29 to make sure that the government get the message that the people of Leicester will not take their brutal cuts agenda laying down!

In the meantime sign and share the online petition; over 28,000 people have signed already, and it would be good to get another 70,000 too. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/160455