CENTRAL COUNCIL MEETING
Saturday 2nd December 2023
10.00am start
AGENDA
- Welcome Chair
- Opening remarks Chair / Lesley Spillard, Vice Chair.
- Apologies for absence Chair/all
- Minutes of the previous meeting Chair/all
- Matters arising Chair/all
- Preparation for the national AGM Chair/Secretary
a. election of a Returning Officer
b. electronic voting (Election Buddy) - Motions …. See below
- Reports from Standing Groups and/or Branches and welcoming new
branches Plymouth and Cumbria. - Report International Health Working Group by Rathi Guhadasan; Director
- Break (5 minutes)
- Finance report Treasurer
- Implementation of Action Network (new IT platform) – progress report Secretary/all
- Any Other Business/close
MOTION: Escalating violence and healthcare crisis in Palestine
“We are horrified by the escalating violence and healthcare crisis in Palestine and the callous response of the UK government. We note the demands put forward by Sir Keir Starmer to the PM fall short of what the situation requires and regret the lack of leadership from the Labour Party at this crucial time.
A major humanitarian crisis has unfolded. With its recent total closure of Gaza, Israel has left over 2 million Palestinians, of which more than half are children, caged-in with nowhere to flee, and aid agencies unable to attend to their humanitarian and medical needs. The supply
of electricity, food, water and fuel have been cut off at will, making it almost impossible to deliver humanitarian aid and urgent medical attention to injured and hungry Palestinians.
The healthcare crisis is reaching unbearable depths:
over 1/3 of the hospitals and nearly 2/3 of primary healthcare shut down
at least 1,000 kidney failure, 2,000 cancer patients and 130 neonatal babies in incubators are at high risk of death
an estimated 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza risk missing ante-natal care and giving birth without electricity or medical supplies
at least 16 healthcare workers have been killed while on duty and 82 healthcare facilities have been directly attacked
to date, the attacks have left 25,956 Palestinians injured up to 7 November, approximately ½ of them, children.
There are widespread clinical shortages of drugs, blood products and supplies. Fuel at the hospitals is being severely rationed. All 13 hospitals still operational in Gaza city and Northern Gaza have received 500 evacuation orders.
We deplore all loss of life.
The MoH in Gaza reports 10,328 Palestinians including 4,237 children and 2,719 women, have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since the start of the current hostilities. OCHA reports 1,400 Israeli civilians, including 31 children were killed in the 7th October Hamas attack in South Israel. We condemn the targeting of civilians in all cases. According to the Israeli authorities, 240 people are held captive in Gaza. Israeli rights group HaMoked, which regularly gathers figures from Israeli prison authorities reports that Israel is currently holding over 1,100 Palestinians without trial or charge.
We welcome the 26th October statement issued by SHA Central Council encouraging members to join protests calling for a ceasefire and a just peace. We look forward to having the opportunity to march behind the SHA banner.
We call on the Central Council to encourage the Labour Party leadership to:
1- act to help bring about an immediate ceasefire, as called for by the UN, WHO, the TUC and many others
2- unequivocally condemn all acts of violence against civilians.”
Motion submitted by East of England Branch of SHA on 8 November 2023
MOTION: Gaza
SHA condemns the appalling consequences of Israel’s latest attacks on Gaza, which have led to more than 14,000 deaths since 7 October, including at least 6000 children. We also condemn the indiscriminate slaughter of hundreds of civilians by Hamas on 7 October. We are appalled by the scores of attacks on hospitals and other health facilities, which have caused the death of hundreds of medical workers. At least 21 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals are completely out of service, and others have been damaged and are short of medicines and essential supplies.
Even before the latest attacks, health provision in Gaza had been devastated by 56 years of Israeli military occupation and eighteen years of almost total siege and blockade. 80% of children showed signs of emotional distress, and more than one-third needed care for conflict-related trauma.
We note that more than 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.2 million are Palestinian refugees and their descendants, denied return to the homes from which they were evicted in 1948.
We resolve:
1. to organise a meeting with MAP for SHA members and supporters
2. to promote fund-raising for MAP
3. to disseminate information concerning the medical and humanitarian crisis in Gaza
4. to urge SHA delegates to move a similar motion at their CLP
5. to call on the Labour Party leadership to demand and act to help bring about an immediate ceasefire, as called for by the UN, WHO, the TUC and many others
Motion submitted by SHA London Branch 30 November 2023
Emergency motion
Motion:
SHA to stand with public calls to reverse NHS staff downskilling.
The Socialist Health Association welcomes recent moves by the BMA, the Royal
College of Anaesthetists, the Doctors’ Association UK and other medical organisations
to oppose NHS England unethically substituting skilled clinical professionals, such as
doctors and anaesthetists, with far less qualified individuals -often with just two year’s
training.
Congratulates those who have brought this festering issue to public attention via the
media.
Notes that the policy itself, in tandem with the wildly disparate efforts to recruit
physicians’ associates compared with the government’s relaxed attitude to the mass
exodus of doctors, merely underscore what we already knew: NHS England’s business-
oriented new care models and the reshaping of our public healthcare in the image of
Medicare’s accountable care organisations -or integrated care systems- institutionalises
a service-cutting drive which includes staff in its firing line.
(Described in our own report “In Place of Profit”: https://sochealth.co.uk/wp-
content/uploads/2023/09/sha-report-in-place-of-profit-1-3.pdf)
Notes this adds to earlier critiques, such as Shadow Health Secretary Diane Abbott in
2016 calling out “the downgrading of treatment by skills, responsibilities and pay bands”
- part of an NHS England programme explicitly geared to creating business
opportunities.
Notes the SHA’s repeated calls, since 2017, to oppose that programme, including this
substitution, via Labour conference.
Calls on all organisations concerned with the existence of an NHS, and of the wider left,
to join in opposing this deliberate dumbing down of publicly-funded healthcare provision
to suit big business.
References:
”An emergency motion passed by BMA @BMA_GP GPC England calls for “a pause on
all recruitment of PAs across PCNs and General Practice until appropriately safe
regulatory processes and structures are in place”.”
https://twitter.com/BMAGPRegistrars/status/1720338077544001596
“Stop hiring physician associates immediately, BMA demands”
“Medical association says lack of regulation of such workers has ‘blurred the
boundaries’ and puts public at risk”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/16/nhs-stop-hiring-physician-associates-
bma-safety-risk/
NOTE 2023 election procedures and results.