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Beckett pays tribute to NHS and to 400+ staff not here to celebrate its birthday because of C19 – with call to properly pay staff, fund service and end privatisation

Unite’s Assistant General Secretary issues call on the NHS’ 72nd birthday

Unite’s Howard Beckett has marked the 72nd birthday of the NHS with a video tribute both to our health service and to the more than 400 health staff who were killed by the coronavirus as they fought to save patients – and a call for this country to properly protect and respect them.

Beckett highlights privatisation, underfunding and the abuse by the Tories of student nurses who joined the coronavirus front line as indicators of a government determined to run down and parcel off this country’s greatest achievement:

Publishing the video on Twitter, Beckett added:

Could anyone who really cares for the NHS – even if only after the sacrifice of its staff for the health of the nation – disagree?

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10 comments

  1. Top man well said and no I didn’t clap ,,,why ,,, not because I don’t support or appreciate the NHS who saved my life as a kid , but cos the turd Johnson was using it as a gesture for his own political cynical ends

  2. Beckett is absolutely right and although the Govt are prepared to clap for NHS workers that is the limit of their commitment to it. A photo opportunity which fails to disguise Tory intentions.

  3. I have nothing but total respect for ‘Front Line’ NHS staff, but decisions were made by ‘Body-Bag Boris’ to supposedly ‘protect it’. When the elderly & vulnerable are ‘thrown out’ of Hospital beds & placed in Care Homes without testing I wonder why the Tories claim to ‘Protect the NHS’ when its function is to protect us. Perhaps if it was funded adequately & included all ‘care workers’ in its remit?

    1. NHS is now Corporatized, it no longer functions as a public service but as an investor cash cow and profit stream for corporate financial advisors and bureaucrats… being a public service is now little more than a veneer. BBC is still called a public service broadcaster… these terms no longer mean what they once did.

  4. The NHS is in safe hands with this government, isn’t it? The extra 300,000 quid a day for the health service will ensure its survival. If the first payment hasn’t been made by Jan 1st next year, then lobby your MP. It is vital that this money isn’t squandered on hideaways and champagne dinners for Mr Cummings, although we could permit Boris one fridge to cower in. BTW Boris, forget the flagship hospitals and get local health services going again.

  5. Is Howard our next Len
    And where are we in relation to GMB elections, any chance of left getting more than 3% of members to vote for them

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