No to PFI contracts at two South East London hospitals!
LOBBY OF Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust
Tuesday 28th April 2026 from 9 – 10:30am: Members of Reclaim the NHS and the local branch of Unite the Community will ask for more details from Lewisham and Greenwich Trust at its next Board meeting on 28th April. Campaigners will stage a lobby of the Trust outside the meeting from 9 to 10:30 am (meeting starts at 10) that day at Kaleidoscope Children’s Centre, 32 Rushey Green, Lewisham SE6 4JF.
See our Press Release at: https://reclaimthenhs.org/2026/04/27/campaign-groups-sound-the-alarm-over-pfi-contracts-at-two-south-east-london-hospitals/
Getting there: Buses stop outside or close to the Children’s Centre – 47, 54, 75, 136, 185, 199, 208. By train: Catford, Catford Bridge and Ladywell stations are all within walking distance of Kaleidoscope. Lewisham station is about a mile away.
Leafletting
Our small group operates THREE regular pitches for leafleting.
It would be great to see more supporters come along and perhaps start up new pitches.
Places and times are:
Mondays: 11-12:30 outside Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Wednesdays: 11:30 to 12:30 outside Lewisham Hospital
Saturdays: 11:30 to 1pm – General Gordon Square,Woolwich (our stall is near the market)
Join us!
Public Meeting at Blackheath Quaker Meeting House Friday 28th November 2025 at 7:30, Lawn Terrace, Blackheath, London, SE3 9LL More information…
Public meeting Support the Doctors to Save the NHS – 27 March 2023 –
Reclaim the NHS Public Meeting, at the Tramshed in Woolwich 10 May 2022
Health Care industrial action
NHS Resident Doctors (Junior Doctors) vote to accept Government pay offer
September 16, 2024 Englands’ Resident Doctors (Junior Doctors) voted to accept the new Labour Government’s pay offer, a pay uplift across two years of the dispute averages 22.3%, about a third of the way in our journey to full pay restoration. See: Greenwich & Bexley Trades Union Council’s leaflet Support our NHS Junior Doctors pdf
While the Government’s offer has been accepted, Resident Doctors’ campaign for full pay restoration still continues.
As well the Government has agreed that from 18th September, 2024, “junior doctors” across the UK will be known as “resident doctors” to better reflect their expertise.
See BMA, Offer from Government for resident doctors in England – Your questions answered https://www.bma.org.uk/our-campaigns/resident-doctor-campaigns/pay-in-england/offer-from-government-for-resident-doctors-in-england-faqs
NHS Nurses’ strike
On December 15, 2022, the largest nursing strike in NHS history started, which included nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
In May 2023, a pay settlement with the Government was agreed by members of a majority of unions representing nurses.
No national strikes are planned for NHS nurses in England for Autumn or Winter 2024. However, some NHS staff are taking part in other industrial actions.
Guys and St Thomas Hospitals’ day surgery theatre nurses started strike action in June, 2024 when their shift times were extended from 8pm to 9pm. In October, an agreement has been reached in the dispute. The trust agreed to significantly reduce the number of late-night finishes required of the nurses.
NHS Nurses’ pay consultation
In September 2024, two-thirds of Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members who voted rejected the 5.5% pay award. The RCN said that the pay award is not enough and that NHS pay bands should recognize the skills and experience of nursing staff.
NHS Ambulance Staff strike
Ambulance workers (UNISON, GMB and UNITE) also went on strike from December, 2022.
As with the nurses, a pay settlement with the Government was agreed by members of the three unions representing ambulance workers.
NHS GPs collective action
GP leaders at the British Medical Association (BMA) formally entered a dispute with NHS England in April, 2024 over changes to the GP contract. GP partners and contractors in England voted overwhelmingly in favour of collective action to start taking at least one of the easy, safe and sustainable actions proposed below:
- Limit daily patient consultations per clinician to the UEMO recommended safe maximum of 25.
- Serve notice on any voluntary services currently undertaken that plug local commissioning gaps.
- Withdraw permission for data sharing agreements that exclusively use data for secondary purposes (i.e. not direct care).
- Freeze sign-up to any new data sharing agreements or local system data sharing platforms.
- Stop engaging with the e-Referral Advice and Guidance pathway.
- Stop rationing referrals, investigations and admissions. Refer, investigate or admit patients for specialist care when it is clinically appropriate to do so
- Switch off GPConnect Update Record functionality that permits the entry of coding into the GP clinical record by third-party providers.
- Switch off Medicines Optimization Software. This is embedded by the local ICB for the purposes of system financial savings and/or rationing (rather than the clinical benefit of patients).
- Defer signing off “Simpler online requests”.
- Defer making any decisions to accept local or national NHSE Pilot programmes.
See https://www.bma.org.uk/our-campaigns/gp-campaigns/contracts/gp-contract-202425-changes
NHS Health Care Workers strike over pay
In 2024, UNISON members have been involved in multiple strikes over pay, including a 48-hour strike in September 2024, which included support workers at the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Foundation Trust. Update expected. See https://london.unison.org.uk/2024/09/20/further-strike-dates-as-lewisham-and-greenwich-healthcare-support-staff-escalate-their-pay-dispute-says-unison/