About one hundred militants attended the conference in London last week on the crisis in the National The conference had been called by the Central London branch of ASTMS and was sponsored by 11 The plenary session discussed aspects of the struggle for a balth service run in the interest of the working class. In the workshops the particular problems of the different sectors of health workers were more The main emphasis of the conference was on learaing the lessons of the recent industrial action and what steps to take next. Discussions - took place on how hest to unionise health workers and how to combat the ideas of professionalism - ramp ant amongst nurses, doctors and radiographers Dominic Costa, a member of the Medical Pructitioners" Union (attached lo ASTMS), said that trade unionisms on its own was sufficient, What mattered was what workers actually did when they were in the unions The main discussion was on two resolutions, hoth of which were carried by the conference. The fist called for the banning af all private practice, in and pulside the NHS. The picket and demonstration called by the Westminster Trades Council against the Wellington Hospital, a plush, new and half empty private hospital in St John's Wood, was suggested as a first step in such a campaign.
A resolution, put by the organising committee calling for a Workers Inauiry into the NHS was carried overwhelmingly. I proposed that an orpinisation such as the Institute lor Workers' Control be approached to miraly get this off the ground, Fur ther, that all sections of the trade anion and labour movement, inside and outside the NItS, be Involved.
The crisis in the health service is not one that can of should be solved by hospital workers alone. The health service, in it many aspects, concerns all of the working class: the dangors of industrial discases like asbestosis and pneumonicosis, the long waiting Lists, expensive dental treatment: abortion on demand to name a few Recent soldarity action for nurses by the South Wales minutsieone way of broadening the struggle. An In quiry is another practical way of drawing in all trode umonists around the demand for a health service operated in their interests.
The conference made the first step in its call for an inquiry. It is now up to trade anion braches, trades councils, students unions, women's groups erc to take this into the main body of the labour movement HILDA KEEN plans for building 3l new primary In this situation we have unother example of how it is imponsible to