Keep Blood Testing Services in Southend!

As I am nearing 50 years of age, I have to have annual blood tests to keep a check on the health conditions that afflict a middle-aged man. So I feel that I have have a genuine interest in and am "a stakeholder" in the Blood Testing Services.

For about a fortnight, I have been meaning to post about the proposal from the Strategic Health Authority to move the Blood Testing Services from Southend Hospital to a central laborattory in Bedford. The fast moving pace of events has meant that it is difficult to comment on the current position.

But the unwise and somewhat risible contribution by James Duddridge, Rochford & Southend East Tory MP, has forced me into print so to speak. James' concerns are not concerned with either jobs at Southend Hospital or those of his constituents, but with "spending money better" and  promoting the interests of the private companies muscling their way into the provision of NHS services. He uses the language of an advocate for privatisation. The Bedford laboratory is a partnership with the outsourcing company SERCO.

I would congratulate those comrades from Southend Against The Cuts, Southend TUC and other campaigning groups who staged a protest against the Clinial Commissioning Group (CCG) meeting  at the Civic Centre on 29th January. The public had been invited to submit their concerns and questions to the meeting, however these were summarised in way that the tone of the original contributions were lost. In a remarkable piece if dissembling, the CCG said that this was a "meeting in public, and not a public meeting" and declined to take questions from the floor. This sham is what passes for consultation under the Coalition Government.

I should also acknowledge the contribution of the campaign by the Echo newspaper against the moving of the service to Bedford. In tonight's edition, other local Tory MPs show a bit more savvy than James Duddridge by being cautious and expressing reservations about the proposal. Perhaps they are more in touch with the views of their constituents. Last week, Tory Councillors on Southend Council voted to refer the decision to the Secretary of State for Health. Clearly by "kicking the decision upstairs" the Tory Councillors are hoping to deflect being blamed for this unpopular policy.

To me, the campaign to save the Blood Testing Service is a key battle against the austerity and privatisation policies of the Tories and Lib Dems. It is one that we must win! There may already be one casualty in James Duddridge, by putting himself on the wrong side of the argument and against the interests of the people he is elected to represent.