“It’s been the toughest year yet”. That was the message from Dave Prentis, general secretary of UNISON, speaking to health workers including nurses, therapists, paramedics, health care assistants, cooks and cleaners at the union’s annual health conference, in Glasgow today.
In a tough-talking speech, Mr Prentis accused the government of “taking a wrecking ball to our national health service.”
He said: “Our health members are under attack, because of the thirst for profit, the greed of bankers, the failure of government, because of private providers getting on the bandwagon and ignoring the lessons of PFI, as more debts are piled on hospitals through bad commissioning of hospital services.
“Cameron and Osborne are crying crocodile tears when it suits them – talking down our NHS while pretending to care, starving it of cash but spending £10m on a funeral – £10m that would have paid for 400 nurses, £10m that would have treated 300 cancer patients, £10m that would have stopped 7,000 people falling into fuel poverty.
“They plant the seeds of doubt in the public mind and they say that the private sector can do it better, but already the problems are surfacing – waiting times are increasing and public satisfaction is beginning to ebb away.
“And here in Scotland we have private sector providers being given NHS work in order to cut waiting lists – money that should go into patient care, not to shareholders.
“Where our people see economic misery, the government sees opportunity. An opportunity to weaken trade unions, to reduce wages, cut sick pay and make you work longer. This is a country with no employment protections and where the price of justice is going up – legal aid is being cut and fees for tribunals going up. Everything up for sale if they get their way, a return to a Victorian past.
“We cannot let that happen. We have the strength to stand in their way. We are big enough to stand in their way – we stand for millions, not millionaires.”
