DEFEND THE WHITTINGTON HOSPITAL COALITION

Regular planning meeting but with a focus on the Day of Action (29th April 2010). All are welcome.

Regular planning meeting but with a focus on the Day of Action (29th April 2010). All are welcome.

Sorry that’s it’s been a while since the last update, things have been a bit hectic over the last few weeks.

We had a good couple of hours with the stall outside the Nag’s Head, Holloway on Saturday morning, collecting more signatures, distributing flyers and spreading the word about the Day of Action.  We’ve now got well over ten thousand petition signatures on paper and over 1500 online.

Day Of Action, 29th April

Things are coming along really well for the Day of Action with several different groups and individuals organising events for the day. Hopefully the campaign to save our A&E will be visible in offices, shops and on the streets right across north London. If you have, or need, any ideas for activities please contact us at defendwhittington@googlemail.com. Let us know if you’ve planned something so we can arrange some coverage.

There are more details about the day here and we’ve published a flyer for the day here.

Press Coverage

There’s been a lot of coverage of the meeting with Rachel Tyndall on Monday 29th.

I need to apologise to the Haringey Indepenedent. They have provided a lot of coverage but unfortunately slipped under my radar and haven’t appeared on the site. Sorry.

Hornsey Journal, 03/04/2010: Whittington Hospital: tough choices to be made, says health boss

Islington Tribune, 02/04/2010: Woman who has Whittington A&E fate in her hands

Haringey Independent, 29/03/2010: Senior doctors oppose Whittington Hospital A&E closure

Video

Another excellent video about the march and rally.

The filmmakers who volunteered their time to make the film were:

• Justine Gordon-Smith
• Chris Hall
• Grave Livingstone
• Maggie Pallat.

We are going to have a day of action for the Whittington on Thursday 29th April and would like workplaces, surgeries, nurseries, housing associations etc. to organize events and hold photo opportunities during the day.  We can come round and take photos of the events you organise with a view to creating a montage for the website and distribution to the press.

Please let us know what you can do. We have posters and badges available so please let us know if you need some.

The focal point of the day will be a rally outside the Whittington from 12.00 until 14.00.  This is an opportunity to remind North Central London NHS that this is our hospital, not theirs, and to show our support for the workers and patients of the Whittington.

You can see a list of the events planned so far, and confirmed speakers for the rally, here: http://dwhc.org.uk/doa/

Please come along if you can.

This is a very brief report. More detail will follow over the next few of days.

Over 100 people attended the fantastic meeting tonight where we discussed plans for the next stage of the campaign. The main focus will be a day of action on Thursday 29th April, one week before the probable general election date. The day of action has been arranged for a weekday so that people who work in the areas served by the Whittington can participate in their workplaces. There will also be a rally between 12.00 and 14.00 om the day.

We are going to attend the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) demonstration outside Parliament at 11.00 on Wednesday 24th March. Local PCS branches officially support the campaign and this is a good opportunity to get the attention of politicians and highlight the connections between the Whittington campaign and that of the wider Public Sector.

Rachel Tyndall will be attending a meeting at Islington Town Hall on Monday 29th March. We should have a delegation at the meeting. Placards outside at 19.00 then in to the meeting at 19.30.

There was much discussion from the floor and Jeremy Corbyn provided an update about activities in Parliament.

Islingtonnow tweeted from the meeting (and blew my attempts out of the water.) You can read their live account of the meeting here.

Much more was discussed and minutes from the meeting will be on the site soon.

Sorry for the  somewhat perfunctory nature of this post: your web chap is very , very tired.