• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • FAQ
  • Meet the Team
  • About The London Economic
  • Advertise
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
NEWSLETTER
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Coronavirus UK – Calls for requisition of private hospital beds

It can’t be right that we have plush private hospitals lying empty while people are left in dying in hospitals for the want of a bed says GMB Union

Joe Mellor by Joe Mellor
March 14, 2020
in News
credit;PA

credit;PA

GMB, Britain’s general union, and John Ashworth MP, shadow health secretary, have called for the requisition of private hospital beds in the fight against coronavirus.

The NHS is now expected to deal with a national health emergency despite already being under strain from years of privatisation and cuts.

There are approximately 128,000 overnight beds in the NHS in England. It’s clear the health service may not have enough capacity to deal with this crisis alone.

Meanwhile there are at least 570 private hospitals in the UK and around 8,000 beds in private sector hospitals

Tim Roache, GMB General Secretary, said:

“The Prime Minister says this is ‘the worst public health crisis for a generation’ – well he needs to start acting like it.

“It can’t be right that we have plush private hospitals lying empty waiting for the wealthy to fall ill, while people are left in dying in hospitals for the want of a bed.

RelatedPosts

Lockdown and vaccine sceptics fuming as lockdown and vaccine sceptic journalist gets jab

Police cannot explain ‘unfair’ use of powers against BAME people

Confused reactions as Guardian publishes article claiming even Germany envies UK

Police chief rows back on claims about far left role in anti-lockdown protest

“Do the right thing and let these unused beds be requisitioned by the NHS to save lives.”

Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care said:

“The Government should leave no stone unturned when it comes to supporting our NHS and making sure it is best equipped to protect life throughout the Covid-19 outbreak.”

“That’s why we support GMB’s calls to requisition private hospital beds and increase capacity to meet the rising demand.

“As the Prime Minster said, this is the worst public health crisis for a generation. It would be completely wrong for the Government not to call on all the resources possible.”

Warren Kenny, GMB London Regional Secretary, said:

“The Government and their advisers must have available to them the powers to requisition these hospital beds if required to increase capacity to deal with the crisis. In particular, using these beds to divert non-coronavirus-related treatments from NHS hospitals may make sense. 

“The electorate will expect the government to be able to mobilise all health capacity – be it public or private – to deal with what the Prime Minister has described as ‘the worst public health crisis for a generation’.  The private health sector cannot be excluded from this mobilisation.”

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism
Please login to join discussion

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending fromTLE

  • All
  • trending

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

Stress, fear and homelessness: The threat looming over families confronted with eviction

File photo dated 07/11/03 of a prison cell.

The Other Prison Pandemic

Latest from TLE

Watch – After billions spent on test and trace Sunak says people ‘trust us with their money’

Credit;PA

Doctor appears in court video call for traffic violation while performing surgery

Credit;PA

Lockdown and vaccine sceptics fuming as lockdown and vaccine sceptic journalist gets jab

Credit;PA

What the parable of the 6.2cm journalist teaches us about NHS data

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: jack@thelondoneconomic.com

Commercial enquiries, please contact: advertise@thelondoneconomic.com

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech & Auto
  • About The London Economic
  • Meet the Team
  • Privacy policy

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.