With thanks to Pete Mason, Chair of Barking Reach Resident's Association
The Thames View Health Centre was designed for the original Thames View housing estate around Bastable Avenue, but in recent years, more housing has been built, both in the original estate, and on reclaimed land to the East and South, but there has been no new health provision.
There are thousands of new residents of the Barking Riverside estate and surrounds, soon to reach 10,800 homes in addition to the original Thames View Estate, but there is no new health centre, nor any additional provision at Thames View Health Centre.
NHS no longer free
Our NHS is no longer free when there are no GPs to deal with urgent health concerns that working class people face on a daily basis. Residents are told urgent appointments are only available at 8am, but when calling for an urgent appointments at that time they usually get a recorded message: "Sorry, your call cannot be taken at present, please try again later." Others are advised they are number 14 or 15 in the queue, meaning that there will be no emergency doctors' appointments by the time their call is taken. No one knows how many residents call and fail to get an appointment, but it appears to be many times the number of those that do.
The result, as detailed by local GP Dr J John, is the late presentation of illnesses at the health centre, some of which have become life threatening. This creates a vicious cycle of untreated minor illnesses turning into major health emergencies, devouring more health service resources, at a much greater cost. Cost cutting in health makes no economic sense.
Money handed to rich Tory friends
Between March 2020 and June 2021, the Tory government had awarded £37.9 billion worth of coronavirus contracts to private companies, according to data collected by Tussell, a data provider that tracks state contracts across all areas of public services. The vast majority of these contracts have been awarded without a competitive tender. Many had no history of PPE procurement or production and their products were worthless. £108m was given to Pestfix, a tiny pest control company with net assets of £18,000. £108m went to a modestly sized confectioner in Northern Ireland, Clandeboye Agencies. A contract worth £252m was awarded to Ayanda, an opaque private fund owned through a tax haven.
The National Audit Office report released in November 2020, showed that companies with political connections were ten times more likely to be awarded a contract than companies that did not have such connections.
Reverse Privatisation
The failure of privatisation in the health service, together with cronyism and corruption, is resulting in a vast drain on resources. Handing over care homes and services has also resulted in poor quality care, low pay, and big profits for private companies.
We demand:
- The reversal of privatisation of our NHS. Bring all NHS services back into public ownership.
- Bring the care services into the NHS, with proper training and decent pay for its workers.
- We demand proper resources for our GP services based on the need of communities.
- The payment of the full 15% pay claim of our heroic health workers, who have put their lives at risk daily to safeguard our health.
