On Friday 29th October at the General Committee, Martin Rathfeinder from the Socialist Health Association joined us and gave a short talk on the NHS.
The General Committee or GC for short is a monthly meeting which includes representatives from all of Leeds North West constituency’s smaller areas (branches) e.g. Otley, Adel and Yeadon as well as Headingley and Weetwood.
For more information have a look at this
How does a Constituency Labour Party work – from Wikipedia
Here is an eyewitness account from Weetwood member, Paul Cheetham:
His main topic was health inequalities which as he said are rarely talked about by politicians and don’t change very much.The SHA campaigns for an integrated healthcare system which reduces inequalities in health and is accountable to the communities it serves.Martin pointed out that 90% of NHS money goes to hospitals and yet the major advances in life expectancy have related to plumbing,housing,employment and diet [a very interesting point]!
Under the new NHS bill public health reverts to being a local authority responsibility and the funding for this is unlikely to be enough.We agreed that we would organise a Leeds Public Health Forum and that we agreed to try to get Andy Burnham to attend.
Socialist Health talk
