Yesterday we travelled early to Broadstairs  as I had seen there was going to be a meeting Of our Save Canterbury Hospital. They have moved our A&E to Margate or Ashford so it means a longer journey when we are in trouble and to get to Ashford we have a long winding country road to travel with blue lights.

I was surprised at how man came, the room filled up and more chairs were passed in. The meeting started dead on time. I was not prepared for what we heard. To say I’m shocked doesn’t even come near it. I knew we are heading for a privatised health care but when we have GP’s telling us I woke up to the fact I had been right in my thinking.

I don’t want my blog to become political but I talk about my day-to-day happenings so as I did go to this meeting I will just report what I heard and leave the reader (You) to draw your own conclusions.

The conference included workshops on mental health, the government’s Sustainability and Transformation Partnership plans and ways to defend local surgeries and hospitals.

Hosted by Thanet Trades Union Council, the conference bought together individuals with unparalleled experience of campaigning for the future of NHS in the Kent area.

Speakers included Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield, health campaigner Dr Bob Gill, Jacqui Berry (Health Campaigns Together and Unison executive), Dr. Coral Jones (Vice chair of Doctors in Unite the Union) and Ken Rogers (Concern for Health in East Kent).

The Speaker that stood out was Larry Sanders The brother of the US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. He was a key speaker at the conference which debated how to defend east Kent’s medical services. Larry Sanders spoke as a spokesperson for the Green Party.

He told us about the US and how serious the health system was getting there as well.

We also listened to Bob Gill and he was amazing. I came hoe and googled and found he already has You tube a speech which repeated what he told us.

If you care about our NHS please watch this. he has put his job on-line to talk to us.

We came away from the meeting knowing we can’t sit back and let this happen to our beloved NHS that is admired the world over. So we will attend other meetings. There is going to be a march in London but I feel we should stick to our local area and try to save our Kent and Canterbury it is what matters the most. As we were saying with all the chaos of ambulances queuing to get to A&E at Ashford, people on trolleys waiting for treatment that they have a trolley nurse now to attend patients, our wonder doctors and nurses still give such dedicated services that we still think they are the best.

We had so many facts and figures we came away with it all swirling in our head.

I still want to say a big thank you to all the wonderful staff of our NHS the people are on your side.