Ambulance protest greets Tory Party members at hustings
Conservative Party members arriving for the leadership hustings at Birmingham's NEC were greeted by the sight of an ex-NHS ambulance crewed by protesters.
Campaign group 38 Degrees have been visiting the leadership debates to highlight the impact of the NHS backlog on patients and demanding the next PM fixes it fast. But on Tuesday night, security staff turned away the campaigners.
Outside the exhibition centre, approximately 40 protesters gathered ahead of the hustings, chanting “Tory scum – out of Brum”, while party members queued to get in.
38 Degrees said they were were attempting to highlight the stories of ordinary patients enduring long waits for treatment, like 67-year-old retiree Martin Higgins, from Perry Barr in Birmingham.
Martin has severe osteoarthritis in both knees, and approached his GP about serious pain over two years ago. He has now been waiting around 18 months for a knee replacement. Martin says the pain from his left knee is now so bad it stops him from sleeping through the night - yet he still doesn't know when he will get the vital operation.
Martin said: "I'm just waiting, waiting, always waiting. I'm lucky that I have a high pain threshold but over the last couple of years the pain has become something that is unbearable.
"Obviously there needs to be a plan to fix this. Politicians need to listen to people in the grassroots of the NHS, the ward sisters, the consultants, who know what they are doing and know what is needed."
Veronica Hawking, head of campaigns at 38 Degrees, said: “This backlog is the result of years of underfunding: millions of patients are paying the price for the government’s failure to properly fund our NHS.
“We don’t think the leadership candidates are taking the problem seriously enough - so we sent our ambulance to remind them that, while it may not be an accident, it is an emergency. Yet tonight we weren’t even allowed close enough to give Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak the message.
“They’ve been ignoring our NHS, and now they’re ignoring the tens of thousands of people reminding them that it’s their job to make sure this country has a functioning health service.
“While the leadership candidates continue to overlook the crisis in our NHS, we won’t stop fighting. They can send us away, but we’re speaking for the 6.7m people on waiting lists - and we won’t be silenced.
“The candidates must offer a real resourced plan that gets patients seen quicker; offers sufficient wages to keep talented staff in vital jobs; and puts a stop to privatisation by the backdoor. Until we see that, we won’t stop sending our message to the people who want to lead this country.”
