* Some patients had died in the casualty department after waiting hours for a bed.
* Emergency cases had to wait several days to enter hospital for treatment.
* Some non-urgent cases on the waiting list would never be operated on.
* Cancer victims had to wait up to six weeks for an operation, allowing time for tumours to spread.
* Patients were forced to leave hospital early to make way for casualties. REDUCED The core of the strategy of the DHSS in the next five years was set out in a Consultative Paper on Priorities for Health published by Barbara Castle shortly before she was sacked by Callaghan. Under the guise of providing extra help to the cinderellas of the NHS - the services for the old, the mentally ill, the mentally and the physically handicapped and children - large cuts are justified in other sectors of the service.
As can be seen, the 'growth' in spending on most of these so-called 'priorities' is reduced. However, this is used, for example, to justify a £10 million cut in the maternity services, although the birth rate is expected to increase in 1977.
The real aim is to reduce the demand for hospital treatment and against Mentally Handi Mentally I Childres Others Tota to shift the burden of care on to the community health services. Sary cart WORKERS 'PRIORITIES' FOR EXPENDITURE 11.0 But it doesn't stop here. Because these services too have been chronically starved of funds in the past, they often can't provide the neceABOVE and BELOW: marching to save the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson hospital, 21 July occupations are the way to save the EGA.
Militants should also demand that MPs like Stallard and Jeger support the lobby of the Labour Party Conference organised by the National Coordinating Committee Against NHS Cuts to demand - which rejected all cuts and outlined Wandsworth, Sutton and East Merton AHA report, for instance, that few if any areas reach the desirable levels of staffing. They admit that they themselves are short of 27 health visitors, 23 trained nurses, 63 home nurses and 105 nursing auxiliaries.
Castle proposed that the care of the old, mentally ill, mentally and physically handicapped and children should be carried out through increased community care provision. But at the same time the Government won't provide the necessary finance. The solution for the DHSS is to use voluntary help and the often forgotten aunts and grandmothers' to provide the care the State refuses to fund Another sleight of hand by the DHSS is to re-allocate funds benait.
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A WE DEMAND UP E.