{"id":8719,"date":"2016-05-17T11:17:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T10:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=8719"},"modified":"2016-05-17T11:17:00","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T10:17:00","slug":"austerity-max","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=8719","title":{"rendered":"Austerity max"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An angry demonstration has been staged against plans to cut health spending in Fife by tens of millions of pounds.<\/p>\n

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Unite members joined local people in staging a noisy protest at Kirkcaldy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Victoria Hospital over Scottish government proposals to cut Fife\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s NHS budget by nearly \u00c2\u014131m, a five per cent reduction.<\/p>\n

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Brandishing placards and banners, the protesters dubbed the move by SNP ministers at Holyrood \u00e2\u20ac\u015bausterity max\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and called on the Scottish government to come up with more money.<\/p>\n

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Union members fear the cut will have a severe negative effect on local people.<\/p>\n

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John Gillespie, chairman of Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Fife area activist committee, said the action was the opening salvo of a campaign to preserve the region\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s health service.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThese cuts will have an impact on the people of Fife, on Fife Council through the health and social care partnership and on the community not-for-profit sector.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s austerity max as far as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m concerned.\u00c2\u00a0You tell me where \u00c2\u014130.8m can be cut from budgets without it having any impact.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Pat Rafferty, Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Scottish Secretary, said,\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThese proposals are indiscriminately awful; cutting health spending hits everyone in society and we will oppose this all the way.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bYoung or old we all need the NHS. The Scottish Government must think again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Toxic cocktail<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bCouncils are in the grip of a toxic cocktail of austerity and needless pre-devolution debt which could damage services in a way we have not seen the dark days of Thatcherism.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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The union gained the backing of Fife Council leader David Ross and several Labour councillors who addressed the demonstrating workers.<\/p>\n

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Speaking at the protest Ross said the cuts were \u00e2\u20ac\u015bunacceptable\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and would have a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhuge impact on services.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe scale of the savings is absolutely huge,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015band will inevitably hit our ability jointly to deliver the health and social care changes that everybody recognises we need.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt will compromise that completely. We need to take this message to the Scottish Government and say that this is unacceptable,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Later some of the protestors travelled to the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh where they met Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deputy leader Alex Rowley and MSP, Claire Baker, who said they shared the unions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 concerns.<\/p>\n

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Mr Rowley congratulated members for leading the fight against the cuts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey are absolutely clear, and I think they are absolutely right, that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impossible to take that level of cuts from NHS Fife\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s budget without having a detrimental impact on services and people,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mr Rowley had previously expressed fears that NHS Fife\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s financial position would leave health services in the region in a critical condition.<\/p>\n

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The health board\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interim director of finance Carol Potter said the extent of the challenge faced was unprecedented and revealed potential job losses and cuts to bed numbers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite and Unison now intend to address next Thursday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s full Fife Council meeting in Glenrothes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An angry demonstration has been staged against plans to cut health spending in Fife by tens of millions of pounds.   Unite members joined local people in staging a noisy protest at Kirkcaldy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Victoria Hospital over Scottish government proposals to cut Fife\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s NHS budget by nearly \u00c2\u014131m, a five per cent reduction.   Brandishing placards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2322,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[104,29,90,149],"wps_subtitle":"SNP told to think again on NHS cuts","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8719"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8719"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8730,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8719\/revisions\/8730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}