Keep our NHS Public held a spirited lunchtime rally to campaign against privatisation in the NHS, bringing together NHS workers, campaigners and others, reports Louis Bailey

The rain poured down on the rally, but this did not dampen the mood of rally participants, nor did it stop the public from showing their support with cars honking as they passed on the busy road. The rally’s theme was ‘Welfare not Warfare’, with most speakers referring to Keir Starmer’s pledge to increase defence spending to over 2.5% of GDP. Speakers ranged from local trade union reps, Green co-leader and MP Adrian Ramsey, to Labour MPs John McDonnell and Richard Burgon, and independent MP Iqbal Mohamed, among others. There was also a delegation of striking workers from Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital.

At the same time as pledging more money for war, Streeting is determined to further privatise the NHS, claiming that there is not enough money to keep it in public ownership. The increase in military spending shows that there clearly is enough money, and the move away from a publicly owned NHS is a political choice. We must oppose this; the NHS was fought for, and we need to keep fighting for it to stay and be restored as a public service.

The rally started with remarks from Tom Griffiths of Keep Our NHS Public on the need to rebuild the movement around the NHS. He said that this rally is just the beginning in building an understanding of the clear links between cuts and privatisation and the increase in defence spending. There was considerable anger about Starmer’s pledge to increase military spending through cuts to the international aid budget. Tom pointed out: ‘if there is money, it should be going into the NHS and not for weapons of mass destruction.’

Johnbosco Nwogbo from We Own It spoke about the absolute disaster of involving private companies in the NHS. He gave harrowing examples, including about the company, Sciensus, which delivers vital medication to patients who cannot collect it themselves. The company has missed 10,000 deliveries in the course of a year. For example, it failed to send vital injections to a patient called ‘Autumn, an eight-year-old girl with Crohn’s disease, four times that year.’ This left her with severe stomach cramps, pain and fatigue, and she was unable to attend school. Nwogbo said that these missed deliveries were down to insufficient staff numbers and training. Nwogbo gave us proof that the profit motive is not able to deliver adequate health care.

As seen in the strikes in Colchester, the outsourcing of workers in the NHS does nothing to benefit either the workers, the service, or health outcomes. All it does is move the responsibility onto unaccountable corporations and siphon money out of our health system. This leads directly to staff redundancies, poorer working conditions, and worse-performing hospitals.

The atmosphere of the pouring rain hardened everyone’s resolve to keep fighting to build the movement to keep the NHS in public hands. Keep Our NHS Public is at the forefront of this, and we should be supporting their work and helping to build a mass movement around the NHS. Creating the links between war abroad and privatisation at home is key to this. The increase in defence spending does not benefit any working person in the UK or abroad; it only removes resources from the services we need.