More than 150 people picketed a meeting of Camden Council on 14 January to demand that it refuse to implement the Government's cuts SAVE OUR SERVICES with extinction.
outside the area. This hospital is almost unique in that it was founded by a woman for women and is staffed entirely by women, and in addition to affording to poor women and children the opportunity of obtaining medical and surgical treatment by qualified women, the hospital takes a considerable part in promoting the medical education of women.
These were the words of a Charter granted to the Elisabeth Garrett Anderson Hospita in North London in 929 But the needs of the community and paracuary women are no lonæer con sidered 'relevant' under Labour's policy of cuts, and the EGA is now faced The EGA is situated opposite the main railway termini in the Euston Road, so that it would be easily accessible to women from all over the country: and the Islington & Camden Area Health Aumony wich Covers It now rees 'unable' to provide for a hospital which draws 75 per cent of its patients from Like many other hospitals due for the chop, conditions at the EGA have been rapidly deteriorating. Student nurses were withdrawn from the hospital last year, and it has had to rely on fully trained, mainly agency nurses at very high rates. The maternity ward-situated in Hampstead - has been closed, leaving the hospital with a gynaecologic The same pattern of events preceded the closure of the Liverpool Road Hospital in Islington last year, another hospital which only serviced women; and is likely to occur again at the National Temperance Hospital in Camden, which contains the abortion and gynaecological wards of University College Hospital.
'Unsuitable' Amongst the reasons' put forward for closing the hospital has been the recent discovery' by the DHSS that the Euston Road site is unsuitable for a hospital! Unable to substantiate this the site could be worth a small fortune if sold off to property speculators -could this be a reason why the site is unThe Labour Government's cuts in social services are hitting women particularly hard, and the EGA is but one example of this. Little opportunity is open to women to train as doctors Only 8 percent of all consultants are women, and the hierarchy of the medic al profession is completely dominated by men. But many women patients, for both religious and personal reasons, pre ter to be treated by women doctors - ana tnat choice snould be as open to them as it is to men.
The EGA is one of the few remaining hospitals which actually ofters that choice Only when a health service has been established under the control of the working class, which actually meets the needs of the community, will women fully benefit both as patients and as workers Conference To achieve that goal, a fight must be waged by the working class against all attacks on its living standards, and that fight must include not only the defence, but the extension of the kind of facilities provided by Ine cuA. As part or ine fight against cuts and unemployment, the Working Women's Charter London Conference on "Women and the Cuts' or 28 February is an important step. If the labour movement is to wage a united campaign against the policies of the Labour Government, women must play an integral part in that struggle For more information and delegate forms to the conference, contact: Women and the Cuts Conference, c/o Michele Ryan, 39 Parkholme Road, London E.8 (tel. 249 3072)
Jane Clarke