date: 2 March 2007

embargo: 00:01 hours Saturday 3 March 2007

Put NHS back on track, Barber tells NHS march

TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber, is to tell an NHS Together march in Sheffield today (Saturday) that the Government is in danger of squandering the political credit it has earned for its investment in the NHS and the better patient care that NHS staff are now delivering.

The march is just one of a series of events to be held across the country as part of a day of action called by NHS Together, the new alliance of all the organisations representing staff in the NHS together with the TUC. Events range from unveiling an NHS Together banner at the peak of Skiddaw in the Lake District to marches, rallies, concerts and community campaigning in towns and cities across England.

Mr Barber will tell marchers:

'There is a rising tide of cynicism about the NHS. People tell pollsters that the service has got no better since the Government has come to power, even while saying that their own personal experience has been good.

'Voters should trust their own judgement, not that of the cynics. For there can be no doubt that extra cash, extra staff and the commitment of staff in the NHS has made a difference. Of course there is always room for improvement - and rightly, better services will always lead to even higher expectations - but we have a message to the cynics and opponents today. Stop trashing the NHS - join with us in celebrating the achievements - not just of doctors and nurses but the whole health team.

'This Government should be getting much of the credit for this better NHS. We are well on course to spending the same as our European colleagues, after years when it was starved of resources. Bravely the Chancellor won the argument for higher National Insurance contributions to pay for better health.

'But it is in danger of squandering the political credit it deserves, and it is running out of time to put it right. It needs action on three fronts.

'First it must deal with the cash gap. No one can expect health spending to carry on growing at the same rate every year, but the brakes have been slammed on too fast with job losses up and down the country.

'Second it must end constant change. NHS staff are not against change. That's an insult. But too many top-down targets and endless reorganisations have become a substitute for the hard slog of delivering better patient care with government, managers and staff working together.

'Third it must stop the fragmentation of the NHS. It's one of Britain's most valued institutions. It is based on the values of co-operation and working together, not competition and profit. Yet internal markets and the rapid growth of the private sector are fragmenting the NHS. Where different parts of the service used to work together, now they are competing for patients, and on a playing field with a distinct tilt to the private sector.

'And it needs to do all of these to win back the support of NHS staff, who with supporters are demonstrating, marching and meeting across the country today - giving up their spare time because they love the jobs they do and love the organisation that makes that possible - the NHS.

'It is not too late to put the NHS back on track, and ministers are certainly much more willing to talk to us since we launched NHS Together - I welcome that.

'Nor do we want to join those whose policies want to go even further in fragmenting and breaking up the NHS who are using health as a political football to kick this Government. The NHS is too important for that.

'So our message here today - and across the country - is work with us. Win back our trust. Work together to make the NHS even better.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- For a full listing of the NHS Together events happening over the weekend, visit http://www.tuc.org.uk/nhstogether/Dayofaction.cfm?theme=nhstogether Events include (all take place on 3 March, unless stated otherwise):

- hill-walking NHS employees are to scale the heights of Skiddaw, England's third highest

peak, to unfurl an NHS Together banner at the summit. The walkers will assemble at Moot Hall at 9.30am.

- In Woking, bands and artists including Sham 69, The Pretty Things and Rhoda Dakar take to the stage on Sunday 4 March at the H G Wells Centre from 2pm til 10pm to 'Rock for the NHS'. (Contact: Mick Moriarty 07957 506364).

- Brendan Barber joins a march in Sheffield starting at 11am in the city's Western Park (opposite the Children's Hospital) and ending at City Hall. Brendan then speaks at a rally, along with RCN President Maura Buchanan and TUC Yorkshire and the Humber Regional Secretary, Bill Adams. (Contact: Bill Adams 07867 788856)

- At noon, a rally takes place in Birmingham city centre in Victoria Square. Speakers include RCN General Secretary Dr Peter Carter and UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis. (Contact: Alan Weaver 07771 778694)

- In Crawley, a street theatre in celebration of the NHS takes place from 11am-3pm in the town's Queen's Square, with local schools, colleges and drama groups performing plays, poems or drawing pictures depicting what the NHS means to them. (Contact: Zena Dodgson 07788 550577)

- Speakers at the London rally at 1.30pm include UNISON's National Secretary for Health, Karen Jennings, Amicus Assistant General Secretary, Gail Cartmail and Josie Irwin, the RCN's Head of Employment Relations. The event takes place at the Friends Meeting House on Euston Road. (Contact: Laurie Heselden 07818 002877).

- March and rally at noon in Preston's Flag Market involving health employees from hospitals across the North West. (Contact: Alan Manning 07887 797156)

- Noon rally in the Cornmarket in Belfast city centre, addressed by Patricia McKeown, Vice President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and Lily Kerr, Chair of the ICTU's Health Services Committee. (Contact: Tom Gillen 07802 461020).

- NHS Together is a new alliance of all the organisations that represent staff working in the NHS, together with the Trades Union Congress (TUC). Its aim is to defend and celebrate the improvements in local health services that have been achieved by extra government spending and the hard work and commitment of NHS staff. But NHS Together is warning that this progress is under threat from:

deficits in local NHS trusts,

too much and too rapid top-down reform and reorganisation that does not involve NHS staff,

the rapid expansion of the private sector and reforms that have set different parts of the NHS competing against each for patients. This is fragmenting the health service and stopping it working together for the good of patients.

- NHS Together members are Amicus, British and Irish Orphoptic Society, British Dietetic Association, British Medical Association, Community and District Nursing Association, Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, GMB, Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association, Society of Radiographers, Managers in Partnership, Royal College of Midwives, Royal College of Nursing, TGWU, TUC and UNISON.

Contacts:

Media enquiries: Tim Lezard T: 020 7467 1248; E: tlezard@tuc.org.uk

Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248; M: 07778 158175; E: media@tuc.org.uk

Press release (1,300 words) issued 3 Mar 2007