Unison and SWP secure closure
of Badsley Moor Lane Hospital

The systematic campaign by UNISON to prevent any effective struggle against the closure of Badsley Moor Lane Hospital in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, reached a conclusion last month as the Area Health Authority voted unanimously to close the in-patient facilities and transfer patients to Rotherham General Hospital.

The September 17 meeting was supposedly to review the written consultation documents presented for and against closure, but the decision was pre-determined.

Chief Executive John Hinchcliffe presented a report which gave four possible conclusions to be voted upon, full acceptance of closure, rejection of closure altogether, closing in-patient beds and transferring day hospital facilities to the District General while maintaining the building, closing in-patient beds while maintaining a functioning day hospital pending the results of an ongoing comprehensive review of day care provision in Rotherham.

The fourth proposal was accepted. All this amounts to is a stay of execution for the day-care beds until the end of the year. Transferring elderly patients to the District General not only means the immediate loss of 36 beds, but it will make closing the day facilities and the loss of a further 50 beds much easier.

From the beginning it was clear that the union would not oppose this closure. Rather than mobilising workers against the attacks of the Labour government, they insisted workers have faith in Health Minister Frank Dobson.

That their own petition was a complimentary request to Dobson to intervene against the Trust reveals the fact that they had no intention of forcing the Area Health Authority to throw out the proposal. Only the partial or full acceptance of the proposals would mean it going to Dobson for a final decision.

The crucial role in heading off any genuine struggle among workers is played by the middle class ex-radicals. The Socialist Workers Party have played the prominent role in endorsing the UNISON campaign and doing the majority of its leg-work. They insisted that the only way forward is through the Labour Party and the unions. An initial petition which simply endorsed the campaign against closure was replaced by an appeal to Dobson at the instigation of the SWP.

When they saw that the perspective being advanced by the Socialist Equality Party for a political struggle against Labour was attracting some interest from workers, the SWP again intervened to engineer the decision to restrict the meetings to Badsley Moor workers only.

Every gain won by workers, health, education and social services, is up for grabs, . Only a party that stands in opposition to the profit system and its defenders -- the Labour government and the union bureaucracy -- can lead successful struggles of the working class. All those seeking to prevent Badsley Moor's final closure should join the Socialist Equality Party and renew their fight on this perspective.

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