SHERIDAN TO VISIT STOBHILL HOSPITAL TODAY
Tommy Sheridan, Convenor of the Scottish Socialist Party will visit Stobhill Hospital this afternoon at 3.30 p.m. to be given a tour of the hospital currently under threat of closure. He will meet members of staff to discuss the current situation and declare his solidarity with those campaigning to keep the hospital open.

Sheridan said,

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to visit Stobhill and proud to support the campaign that is fighting to stave off closure of this vital NHS facility. The fact that the hospital is still open is a tribute to people power and the way local campaigners have exploited all the democratic possibilities to save their hospital. The Scottish Socialist Party has not stood a candidate in this constituency to give Jean Turner who is campaigning to keep the hospital open a clear run. I sincerely hope she is able to beat Labour on May 1st as they have now become the party of hospital closures in Glasgow rather than trying to extend and improve acute health care in the city.”

He added,
“In particular I will be talking to staff at Stobhill today about the Scottish Socialist Party’s minimum wage policy of £7.32 an hour. There is an abysmal low wage culture within the NHS that the SSP is determined to get rid of forever. Cleaners, caterers, porters and other ancillary staff do vital jobs without which our hospitals wouldn’t be able to function. £5 an hour is simply not adequate and means that nowadays you don’t have to be unemployed to be poor – New Labour has presided over a low-wage economy within our public services to create more profits for the private catering cleaning and portering firms which have usurped our NHS. The SSP would ban the private companies from our hospitals and return all ancillary staff to NHS contracts and decent working conditions.”
[ends]For further information contact Tommy Sheridan on 07887 795075 or Hugh Kerr on 01620 890518/07713 063647