NHS Physios on Strike: 'F**ck praise, we need a raise'

Physiotherapists are the latest group of NHS workers taking strike action in the cost of living crisis. Their strike on 26 January 2023 was well supported at South London Hospitals. I visited the picket line at Guys Hospital:

'if you're happy to exploit NHS workers and you know it clap your hands'

 'F**ck praise, we need a raise'

Pickets were also out at St Thomas' and Lewisham Hospital

St Thomas' Hospital - photo by @EmilyAHickson on twitter
 

Lewisham picket (photo from @aminamangera1 on twitter)

 

Little Amal comes to Deptford

At least a couple of thousand people turned out last Friday (22/10/2021) to greet 'Little Amal' to Deptford: a 3.5 metre-tall puppet of a young refugee girl that has been travelling  8000 km across Europe from the Turkish-Syrian border. Created by the Handspring Puppet Company (famous for The War Horse among other projects), the puppet is the centrepiece of The Walk ' a travelling festival of art and hope in support of refugees'. Deptford was the first stop in London.

The procession made its way down Deptford High Street to Giffin Square, where there was something of a festival arranged by Lewisham as part of its 'Borough of Sanctuary' role. There was a big wheel, various art happenings, and stalls from local community groups such as Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network and the Migration Museum (based in Lewisham shopping centre).

'Migration is not a crime' says Paddington Bear, picked up this bag from Migration Museum stall on the day. 'Disco Against Fascism' badge from 'We Do Good Disco', whose giant 'campotastic' disco washing machine was set up outside the Albany during Amal's visit.

The celebratory atmosphere was in stark contrast to the political mood music last week with the Government continuing with its harsh anti-refugee bill. The hostile environment was highlighted on Saturday (23/10/2021) at Lewisham Hospital where Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network along with hospital campaigners protested against the Government's punitive charges for migrants using the NHS.

Photo from LRMN

Covid-19 street art, volume 1

Covid-19 might have led to physical distancing but, as many have observed, the need for social communication and organisation has never been more apparent. In  this post I am focusing on one aspect of that - public expressions relating to the pandemic as seen on the streets of SE London (examples mainly from Brockley/New Cross/Nunhead area unless otherwise stated). There is a wave of spontaneous street/folk art bubbling up in windows, pavements, hoardings and many other places.

The first wave of creativity accompanied the launch of community self-help/mutual aid. The first public sign of this was the launch of the Lewisham Covid 19 Mutual Aid facebook group on March 12th, a good ten days before the Government implemented a lockdown. Soon flyers were dropping through letterboxes and posters going up all over the place, as people set up local groups at neighbourhood and street level. Today there are well established networks in most areas, there is lots of informal checking in on neighbours and co-ordinated responses to requests to pick up shopping and medicines, along with more ambitious efforts such as delivering food parcels to those who need it most (such as the scheme being run from Telegraph Hill area). If in some streets there hasn't been much need to go beyond setting up a whatsapp group, it is good to know that the support is there when required. Here's a couple of early examples of leaflets, from Telegraph Hill and Brockley respectively (click to enlarge).

'If you're self isolating you are not alone' (Telegraph Hill leaflet) 

'Need the support of your community during Covid-19? We can help' (Brockley leaflet)

The key visual image of pandemic street art has been the children's painting of a rainbow, displayed in a window as a general expression of hope. This seems to have started in Italy and spread internationally.

Some people have taken the rainbow on to another level - here's a balloon arch from Waller Road SE14:

Another international trend has been the bear hunt - strategically placed teddy bears for children to spot when they are out and about with their parents during their exercise stroll. This bear is giving thanks not to just emergency services but to food producers, shop workers, delivery people and... cats:

In Britain over the last couple of weeks the rainbow has merged  with another key trope - support for people working in the National Health Service. Here's some chalked examples:

Ravensbourne Park

Ivydale Road

'thank you NHS & Key workers - stay safe' (Ivydale Road)

NHS on Gellatly Road, opposite Skehans pub

 Elsewhere there have been banners, like this one:

'Thank you NHS' - Frendsbury Gardens, Honor Oak Estate (detail below)

Rushey Green - 'Care for each other'

The 'Trees on the Green' sculptures at Rushey Green have been decorated with pictures from children and staff at St John Baptist Primary School in Catford.

Similar sentiments have been expressed in street art pieces like these:

'We are blessed to have the NHS' - Geoffrey Road, SE4 (by Harry Blackmore)

NHS superhero, Hilly Fields

These graphic outpourings of support for NHS workers have been matched by public cheering on Thursday nights at 8 pm (for three consecutive weeks so far). In many places people have been clapping and generally making noise from their doors and windows. On my street in SE14 it has got busier and noisier over the three weeks, with banging of saucepans and even a couple of trumpets. It is both a gesture of solidarity and an affirmation of community, the only time in the week when we get to see our neighbours in any numbers.

I've seen some remarks online to the effect that what frontline workers in the health service need is better pay, more funding and Personal Protective Equipment, rather than cheers. But these need not be mutually exclusive. What is being shown appreciation on Thursday nights is not the limitations of the top down, under-resourced NHS with its various hierarchies and bureaucracies but the value of care and the principle that it must be there for all regardless of wealth. And of course respect for those shouldering the risk of providing this while many of us stay at home (not that this is limited to the NHS, let's not forgot teachers, social workers, care home staff etc.).

Many other people are having to travel to work and mix with colleagues because their employers have rather dubiously classed their work as essential. The reluctance of some companies to prioritise the health of their staff and customers by closing was highlighted at Wetherspoons pub chain, before they were forced to close by lockdown restrictions. This sticker from staff at the Brockley Barge highlighted their campaign for 'real sick pay now':

'Living wage for Brockley Barge staff'

Now with so many places closed we have become familiar with notices on doors explaining their position. This one is from the Old Nun's Head pub looking forward to reopening when 'this absolute bastard of  a virus has finally buggered off':

If ordinary politics seems to have been temporarily put on hold, it will no doubt return. A global pandemic affecting people everywhere might open the way for planetary humanist responses,  but equally it could be the precursor to a climate of blame in which various 'others' are held responsible. There are questions about what labour gets valued, how health and care services are resourced, what kind of 'normality' do we want to go back to? There has been some political graffiti locally but there will be a lot more political debate and controversy to come. 

'Pandemic to class war - don't trust Boris' - Lewisham town centre

'Covid futurism - economy of care - universal basic income - bury capital'
(the closed Black Horse and Harrow pub in Catford - most recently 'The Ninth Life')

And of course once again we are thankful for the success of our fight to stop the Government from closing Lewisham Hospital. The fallacy of reducing hospital services to a bare minimum with no capacity to respond to surges in illness has surely been exposed once and for all. Lives are being saved today at Lewisham as a result of the thousands who marched and campaigned back in 2013.

'Save Lewisham Hospital' campaign thanking NHS staff last month and
 calling for 'personal protection equipment for them now'

A message from some Lewisham staff - 'I stayed at work for you. Please stay at home for me!'

Junior Doctors Strike - it's not all about the money

photo from Dr Tony O'Sullivan on twitter

Pickets were out at hospitals across the country yesterday - and will be again today - in the 4th strike in the ongoing Junior Doctors dispute.  In South East London that included Lewisham Hospital (pictured above) and Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich. Simon Pirani, who was at Woolwich, has sent us this report:

'Junior doctors picketed Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich this morning in protest at the Tory government’s attempt to impose a new contract. Together with local supporters (including me) they formed a group of about 20 at the main gate. Patients on their way in to appointments wished them well; drivers honked and waved.

 

Women doctors on the picket line were especially incensed at the results of an equality impact assessment, released by the government last week, which show that the new contracts will disproportionately disadvantage women. They were also angry about the way that the contract terms discriminate against junior doctors working part-time – many of whom are women with children.

 

The pickets hope that the threat of all-out strike action, on 26-27 April, will persuade the government to back down from imposing the contract ... or at least to put it out for consultative review.

 

My impression was that the junior doctors’ dispute has almost nothing to do with the level of pay. These are people who spend up to 15 years training for a demanding (and ultimately well paid) profession. They already work all the shifts that god sends, and have to move hospitals regularly. It is the way that the contract is being rammed through – and the way that it takes unsocial hours working for granted – that infuriates them.

 

Anger is also generated by the government’s dictatorial handling of negotiations with the BMA, its insulting propaganda (“extra deaths at the weekends” and all those lies) and its bullying demeanour. On top of that, the new contract is obviously part of a long continuum of changes aimed at trashing the NHS as a publicly-provided service and making it a privatised business.

 

The pickets will be at QEH again on Tuesday 26 April, at 8.0 am, when they will be on all-out strike. Please join them'.

 

Striking junior doctors in Woolwich

 

NHS Cleaners strike at four South London mental heatlh units

Domestics and hostesses employed by private contractor Aramark at four sites of South London and Maudsley NHS Trust (SLAM) are out on strike today, seeking a living wage of £10per hour and an end to two tier arrangements on sick pay and shift allowances. The strike involves GMB members at  the Maudsley, Lambeth, Bethlem and Ladywell mental health service sites - the latter at Lewisham Hospital, where strikers were joined on the picket line by the indefatigable Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign.

Junior Doctors Strike in South London

There was good support across South London for today's strike by Junior Doctors against proposed new contract conditions.

Pickets at Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell photo from Unite the Resistance on twitter

Guys Hospital

St Thomas Hospital - photo by @laurafleur on twitter

Croydon University Hospital - photo from @ger_ogara on twitter

Lewisham Hospital - photo from @Allan_Katie on twitter

If you want to know more about the reasons for the strike and why doctors believe that they are not just fighting for their terms and conditions but for patient safety and for the NHS itself, check out the video from The Guardian filmed at Lewisham earlier today.

NHS Strike - 'Pay Midwives some respect' at St Thomas' SE1

Protest outside St Thomas' Hospital, SE1

 Health workers across South London took part in yesterday's national strike action over NHS pay, braving the rain to protest at hospitals across the area during the four hour walkout. Like many workers, those in the NHS have seen their real income fall in the past few years. This year, 60% of NHS workers will get no pay rise at all while the cost of living continues to rise - especially in London where rents and house prices are already beyond the reach of many health workers. 

'Pay midwives - some respect'
- today's NHS strike was the first ever to include the Royal College of Midwives

'Midwives 0%, MPs 11%' - banner at St Thomas'
with the Houses of Parliament just the other side of Waterloo Bridge

strikers at Lewisham
(photo from @midwifecrisis)

I also saw pickets out at Deptford Ambulance Station (at the Old Kent Road of New Cross Road), but didn't get a picture. Any other pictures from here or around the area, send them to transpontine@btinternet.com

NHS Pay Protest at Lewisham Hospital, St Thomas' & St George's - 5 June 2014

On 5 June health workers across the country will be taking part in a day of action protesting the Government’s decision to refuse a 1% pay rise to the majority of NHS staff. The pay rise was  recommended by the Independent NHS Pay Review body but rejected by Conservative Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Many health staff will now have faced a four year pay freeze, at a time when the cost of living has continued to spiral upwards.

Among the protests are a series of events outside local hospitals called by South London branches of the Royal College of Nursing. Nurses and their supporters will be protesting between 10 am to 2 pm on the day outside:

St Thomas’ Hospital, Lambeth

St George’s Hospital, Tooting

University Hospital Lewisham

More details from ewan.russell@rcn.org.uk

RCN are not the most militant of unions, when they are taking to the streets you know feeling is running very high in the NHS.

Music Monday: Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Choir Charity Single

Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Choir (recently renamed from Lewisham NHS Choir) have had quite a year and a bit. Last Autumn they made it to the final of BBC's The Choir: Sing While You Work. Then, with maternity and emergency services under threat, the choir supported the campaign to Save Lewisham Hospital. They performed on the Save Lewisham A&E track with Lewisham rapper Question. With the Hospital saved (for now), they have relesed a charity Christmas single in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support and local healthcare charities.

A Bridge Over You mashes up Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water with Coldplay's Fix You. You can buy it here. The video features scenes shot in Lewisham Hospital.

Celebrations at Lewisham Hospital as Government Loses Appeal

Celebrations outside Lewisham Hospital tonight, following the Court of Appeal's ruling today that Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt did not have power to implement cuts  to maternity and emergency services at Lewisham Hospital. Of course the High Court had ruled to this effect earlier in the year, but the Government had appealed the decision - thankfully without success.

from @savelewishamAE

by @Gwynnita

Does this mean that I can finally take down the Save Our A&E box that has been decorating Transpontine for the last year? Maybe I will for now, but Hunt has already said that the ConDem government intends to change the law to give themselves the powers that the Court ruled they don't currently have.