Over One Thousand March to Save Glenfield Heart Unit

More than one thousand people attended a march in Leicester today in opposition to the proposed closure of Glenfield Children’s Heart Unit.

NHS England claim that the closure of Glenfield has nothing to do with budget cuts, but is about “standards and quality of service”. This is total rubbish. The Tories are planning to cut £22 billion from the NHS by 2020, with proposed cuts of £455 million from Leicestershire’s health services.

In reality, the proposed closure of Glenfield is about cuts to the NHS’s budget… and this is just the thin end of a very nasty wedge. It is no coincidence that Grantham had a similar protest today against the closure of their A&E, and other campaigns are springing up around the country.

People started arriving from 11am onwards at Victoria Park and packed in like sardines before we set off at noon. Addressing the crowd before the march were local health campaigners Shirley Barns, Tom Barker, Zuffar Haq, and none other than Leicester’s very own Shadow Health Minister, Jon Ashworth.

After much chanting and marching, the protest finally reached Jubilee Square where yet more speakers talked about how we can build and win this campaign against NHS cuts.

Speakers at the rally included cardiac consultant Aiden Bolger, local heart unit patient Ria Pahwa, Labour deputy mayor Rory Palmer, Ashifa Fozdar a parent of a child treated at the unit, Sarah Carpenter Unite the unions national officer for health, and last but by no means least, Steve Score, who chaired the event.

NHS England now must realise that the people of Leicester (and beyond) will never let them close our heart unit, and so the campaign will continue to develop in coming months to keep the pressure upon NHS England to ensure that no heart units are closed anywhere!

The Tories are going for the NHS’s jugular, and today was a great example of people fighting back.

Join the ongoing discussion about saving the NHS at our forthcoming public meeting on Thursday night from 7.30pm at the Barley Mow Pub on Granby Street (near the train station): “Save Glenfield: The Socialist Answer to the Crisis in the Health Service.” Speakers: Steve Score and Dr John Dale.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1795331074070798/