Tomorrow night - Thursday 12 November - at 7.30pm, there will be a Wandsworth Borough Council meeting at the Wandsworth Town Hall on the topic of the closure of the Urogynaecology departments at St George's Hospital. Patients will have to travel to Croydon instead.
Click here to read more about this threat to vital health services.
This week, members of the SW London branch of Keep Our NHS Public agreed to attend this meeting to protest against the closures. The plan is to meet at 7pm at the office of the opposition leader Rex Osborne (on first floor of Town Hall). The full address of the Town Hall is Wandsworth High Street (at junction with Fairfield St), SW18 2PU.
Everyone is welcome to join this vital action against possible further cuts to local healthcare.
KOSHH campaigner, Colin Crilly writes about yesterday's stall at the Morden Brook:
On the afternoon of Sunday 26 July, KOSHH had a stall at the Morden Brook pub*, as part of their event to raise funds for the Great Ormond Street Hospital. I was joined by Sandra Ash, David Ash and Dave Ash - we nicknamed ourselves CASH!**
We leafleted most people in the pub about the screening of Sell-Off, which will be held this Wednesday night. Click here for more information about the screening - this will also be held at the Morden Brook. We also got a few more petition signatures, which are always welcome. Additionally, more badges were sold, and we gave out quite a few KOSHH window posters. Click here for more information about how to get your hands on one of these lovely posters.
After more than three hours, we packed up, and posted the remaining leaflets about the Sell-Off screening through letterboxes of a nearby street. As I left the pub, I met a lady by the name of Sandra, and gave her a leaflet - it turned out that she is a leading figure at the nearby church. She has promised to attend the screening and inform other members of the congregation about it. We have also been invited to be part of the church's open day in September.
Any actions like these, no matter how small, are always worthwhile. Every leaflet given out, or discussion participated in could be of pivotal importance. It all helps to get the message out that not only are our local health services under threat but also the wider NHS.
* Many thanks to the Morden Brook for their ongoing support with meeting rooms and event-hosting. Click here to "like" them on Facebook.
** Many thanks to Philippa Zielfa Maslin and Chris Stanton for their assistance in dropping off some essentials to the stall as well.
KOSHH campaigner, Colin Crilly, reports on the peaceful anti-austerity march held in London on Saturday 20 June:
The anti-austerity march in Central London was huge. Estimates of the number of people marching were as high as 200,000 in the media. Amongst these people, there was a high number of NHS campaigners.
KOSHH campaigners, Brian Hennessy, Saleh Mamon and myself represented our campaign. We took turns holding up the KOSHH banner throughout the march. We were able to link up with other NHS campaigners, such as the Lambeth Keep Our NHS Public group. During the march, prominent campaigner and editor of NHS SOS, Dr Jacky Davis took my photo.
When I arrived at Parliament Square, I saw a fire engine. Sure enough, Steve, who let us use the fire engine for a protest in Sutton last year, was at the wheel. He sent his regards to all KOSHH campaigners and gave me his number in case we want to use the fire engine in future actions.
The rally had high profile speakers, including: Charlotte Church, Owen Jones, Caroline Lucas, Jeremy Corbyn and Russell Brand. At the finale, the crowd was encouraged to go into their communities to continue working hard and spreading the word.
Here are some more photos from the march.
On Wednesday July 8, there will be a further protest against an emergency budget from George Osborne - that is sure to bring more worrying news for our health services. Click here for more information.
Click here to order a copy of Dr Jacky Davis and Raymond Tallis's book, NHS SOS.
