The Whittington Hospital

• FOR the last four Thursdays a motley group of locals have met for 8pm clapping outside the Whittington Hospital.

They include people who were born and others who gave birth in the Whittington, people who campaigned to save the A&E department over the years, individuals who are union and Labour Party members and supporters of the north London Revolutionary Communist Group.

The gatherings have been respectful and careful to preserve social distancing and mask-wearing. They are also rallying with demands.

Placards and posters demanding personal protective equipment, PPE, for all hospital staff and an end to the internal market in the NHS which has privatised the purchase and distribution of medical supplies were held and propped up.

Speeches and music made these lively rallies supported by hospital staff and the public alike.

Last week five security guards surrounded the rally saying that the hospital management had sent them to say that placards could not be temporarily displayed with blue tack on the hospital walls.

Further they had been told to say that in any case everybody working in the hospital had PPE; and lastly that the forecourt of the hospital trust is private.

We strongly defend our continued right to demonstrate in public, to communicate our concerns and to ask questions.

On May 17 NHS England reported that 20 per cent of patients with Covid-19 caught the virus while in hospital. This suggests that asymptomatic staff are passing it on to patients because they lack PPE and/or testing.

We have every right to know exactly what the situation is in our local hospital and should not have to depend on being told aggressively by security staff.

We will continue to ask the questions and make the demands until we told by the hospital authorities themselves and the representatives of the doctors, nurses, cleaners, porters, office and – yes – security staff that they are fully equipped, tested and protected to fight this virus.

ANN ELIOT
NW5