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All but 2 Merseyside MPs support closure and the transformation of NHS to the American Healthcare Model NHS Trade Unions support closure of England's ONLY dedicated Maternity and Gynaecology Hospital NHS Nurses and Doctors unaware of the facts in the closure plans - lied to by management and the ICBOn a cold and rainy Friday evening in Liverpool, over 100 people gathered not far from the Liverpool Women's Hospital at the local community centre to listen to speakers Leslie Mahmood, and Felicity Dowling joint founders of the SLWH Campaign Group; and Kim Johnson MP, one of only two Merseyside Labour MPs fighting to save the NHS and the Liverpool Women's Hospital from closure.
The event was a truly lively event with members of the public being fully involved via a question and answer session following the two main speakers.
But fist some of the basic facts around the hidden agenda of this and previous Governments - the transformation of the NHS into an American healthcare model, and the opening up of the NHS as part of a trade deal with the USA. The closure of hospitals and maternity units across England is central to the transformation plans in order to ensure the 'denial of care' model upon which the US healthcare system is based. The closure of England's ONLY dedicated and stand alone Maternity Hospital - the Liverpool Women's Hospital - forms the basis of the Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board's commitment to the Government's 'NHS reform programme', which in effect is simply the transformation of the NHS in England into the American Healthcare model. This of course fits in with its aim of securing a US trade deal by acquiescing to Trumps demand that our NHS is opened up to US healthcare companies and Pharmaceuticals sector, without which Trump will not agree a trade deal with the UK. The Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board's dishonest plan entitled The Case For Change, centres on the closure of the existing Women's Hospital and the transfer of ALL maternity and gynaecological services to an, as yet, unnamed destination! The Save Liverpool Women's Campaign Group's official response to this was discussed at tonight's meeting, of which this is an excerpt of their evidenced document entitled: 'Response To Gynaecology And Maternity Hospital Services in Liverpool: The Case For Change': 'Discussions to close LWH at its present site on Crown Street and re-locate to a smaller new building adjacent to one of the general hospitals The Naylor Review, [reported by this website at the time: The Naylor Report - Asset Stripping of NHS
This is the background to, what is effectively the re-launch of the 10 year long campaign to Save Liverpool Women's Hospital (SLWH), supported by the only two Labour Government MPs on Merseyside, Ian Byrne MP Liverpool West Derby, and the host of tonight's meeting, Kim Johnson MP Riverside:
Following on from her introduction, Felicity Dowling, one of the founding members of the SLWH campaign group, gave a detailed picture of the reason for the campaign, highlighting the fact that Women's Health and specifically Maternity and Gynaecological services in England are under funded, under resourced, and under attack! Her presentation to the meeting, provided full details of the blatantly political and dismissive case that the ICB is promoting, complete with false statements and assumptions; as it spends NHS funds meant for patient care, on consultants, reports and a public campaign of smoke and mirrors.
Lesley Mahmood, a long standing campaigner and, again a founding member of the SLWH Campaign Group, spoke of the campaign and the need for the public to promote the issues of the campaign, educate both the public and NHS clinical and clerical staff as to the true facts of the closure plans of the ICB for the Liverpool Women's Hospital; and to respond to the distortions and lies issued to NHS staff and their Unions, the leaders of whom seem to be ignorant of the realities; and the huge damage to women's Health and maternity healthcare which will occur as a result of these plans by the Cheshire and Merseyside ICB. The bottom line is that more babies being each year will die, and more mothers will die or be maimed mentally and physically during childbirth; in Merseyside, Wales, and the Isle of Man - all areas that the Liverpool Maternity Hospital currently takes provides maternity and gynaecological services to! Introduced by Kim Johnson MP, chair of the meeting, Lesley presented the truth of the lack of understanding of NHS staff and their Trade Unions:
There then followed, a very lively, interesting, and formative question and answers session, with many of the public expressing their commitment to the campaign and a thorough knowledge of the issues and of the duplicity of Merseyside's MPs who simply fail to even try to understand or question the situation and the dire and immediate danger that the planned closure of the Liverpool 8 dedicated and specially built site of England's only dedicated stand-alone maternity hospital and the relocation of Maternity Service on Merseyside to as yet unknown destination; although Manchester has been suggested!!
The Key Issues: 1. Maternity is still grossly underfunded and understaffed, nationally and locally. This is reported by the Royal College of Midwives. Misogyny runs deep in NHS decision making, nationally and locally. 2. The NHS is being shifted to the US model of health care. Privatisation under an NHS logo leeches money from front line care and staff working conditions. 3. The entirely preventable winter crisis. Huge thanks and praise to all those working in this crisis. Grievous harm is happening to staff, patients and families. The RCN recently reported that women had miscarried in hospital corridors, and others have died in these conditions. Waiting lists are huge especially in Gynaecology and women’s health. The Naylor Review: Readers of this website will already know that, the Government has last month, handed over to the private sector, 'elective care' that the NHS traditionally provides. It is also of course part of the 'long term plan' for the NHS which was started by Blair's Government with Alan Milburn MP the then secretary of state for health and Simon Stevens who was the European CEO of United Health; one of the largest US healthcare corporations. Straight from the Tory playbook written by John Redwood and Oliver Letwin in the Thatcher years, on the best way of setting up the NHS ready for the US modelling of turning it into a healthcare insurance service! This is in line with Trump's aim to have the NHS 'opened up' to US private healthcare and pharmaceutical companies, and fits perfectly with Starmer's needs for a US/UK trade deal, i place of being part of the EU single market and customs union.
So just what can you do?
The principle issue here is that the closure of maternity hospitals across England continues, let alone the targeting of stand-alone dedicated Maternity Hospitals of which Liverpool's is the only existing one! It is also very important to: * Write to your local MP, or ask to see your MP in order to respond to the distorted and factually incorrect statements from the IC in their cased to close the hospital. * Raise the issue of the NHS generally, and debunk the Case For Change argument that the ICB is telling staff and their Unions. * Raise too the lies and false promises coming from managers, and the spreading of falsehoods. * Put up a poster calling for action n the NHS. * Give out campaign leaflets in your street. * Talk to family, friends, work colleagues, fellow students, and neighbours about the need to rescue the NHS from being transformed into the American Healthcare system. Remember, Healthcare is a human right that the generation that defeated fascism gifted to us the best Healthcare system in the World. This, at a time when the UK was financially worse off than it ever had been since the first World War, and despite opposition from the Tories and even GP bodies. The NHS has been bled dry by privatisation, by the market in healthcare, by austerity and cuts to funding, by appalling workforce planning, by letting our midwifery service decline, by the frightening damage to our mental health services, by cuts to beds and inadequate staffing and by neglect of the fabric of our NHS buildings. These have all caused grave harm. But each problem can be reversed by government policy, if they so
Source: Save Liverpool Women's Hospital Campaign / Cheshire and Merseyside Coordenated Healthcare Campaign / Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board / Unionsafety See Also: The Smoke And Mirrors Of Labour's Dishonest NHS Policy NHS Privatisation News Archive WHO report for further info into poorest households and women's health
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In doing so, the reforms that Wes Streeting and Keir Starmer are forcing upon the NHS, turning it into the American healthcare model; were highlighted along with the private healthcare companies such as Spire Healthcare who are said to be targeting the site and buildings of the Liverpool Women's Hospital in order to provide further private healthcare services and increase their portfolio of NHS work they already have been contracted to provide.
Kim Johnson MP for the constituency in which the Liverpool Women's Hospital is situated, opened the event and introduced the two speakers after welcoming everyone, pointing out that Friday nights are not the public's favourite day for such an event, and most certainly not on a damp and dark evening in January!
The emergence of austerity as the driving political ideology and with cutbacks in funding for the NHS meant that the Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (LCCG) had to close one of its hospitals. The Women’s Hospital, although less than 20 years old at the time and being massively underfunded, became a candidate. 
Briefly, the Five Year Forward View was to make efficiency savings (cuts) by moving some hospital services to community care, which was deemed cheaper. Bed closures ensued and secondary care capacity reduced. However, resources were not invested into the community and social care services; this resulted in waiting lists for elective surgery increasing and longer stays in hospital for patients waiting for social care
placements. 
The Naylor Review, however, could only sell NHS land or close NHS buildings if there was a clinical reason for deeming them unsafe and “not
Join the campaign to save Liverpool Women's Hospital and sign the on-line petition if you have not already done so. It doesn't matter where you live on Merseyside, we have volunteers and supporters across the whole of Merseyside, Cheshire, and even Lancashire.
