Today the Guardian has reported that unpaid jobseekers are to be put on Workfare programmes to deliver patient care in 3 Sandwell and West Birmingham hospitals.
Workfare schemes, where unemployed workers are expected to work for their benefits, are akin to slave labour. Recent protests against the Workfare programme saw companies such as Tesco drop out rather than face protests.
It is unacceptable that Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust have started using Workfare to run their hospitals, and worse that they are preparing to use unpaid workers to deliver patient care.
While the government claimed to have ring-fenced the funding to the NHS in fact our hospitals are all facing cuts. Sandwell and West Birmingham will face £125 million cuts in the next 5 years. Andrew Lansley has driven through legislation that allows private companies like Virgin to profit from NHS contracts. Now unemployed workers are being told to run our hospitals for free.
Protest
Thursday 24th May at 5pm
Sandwell Hospital, West Bromwich, B71 4HJ. Assemble at the corner of Little Lane and All Saints Road, outside the A&E dept.
Called by Right to Work, Disabled People Against Cuts, Sandwell Against Cuts
hazel said:
Please sign and share Pat’s Petition which calls for the government to “Stop and review the cuts to benefits and services which are falling disproportionately on disabled people, their carers and families”. The link is here http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20968
21 May 2012 at 2:36pmSteve said:
My 21 year old son has just completed a Bsc in Biomedical science and is now wanting to become a medical doctor. To do this he has to enrol into a very competitive graduate entry course, which other than a good degree requires a high UKCAT score and relevant work experience/volunteer work in a caring role. To do this his intention was to do a years work experience as a hospital care assistant and so earn money(and gain experience)to help fund his £9000 a year tuition fees. Now he finds that increasingly hospital trusts are withdrawing these roles in favour of either workfare placements or as “apprenticeship” schemes paying just £95 for a full working week. How on earth is a young person from a modest background able to progress in life if this is what this government are throwing at them these days?
23 July 2012 at 11:50am