Sussex Defend the NHS hosted the PFI exhibition from 24th to 27th March. In addition to the panels provided by People vs PFI, the NHS group had created their own panels for PFIs in the Brighton and Hove area, covering schools, the children’s hospital, Veolia waste and recycling scheme and the Jubilee Library (see below).On Saturday afternoon the exhibition was opened by local MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle who described the problems at Brighton and Hove’s PFIs and echoed John McDonnell’s call to bring PFIs back in house. In the course of the day 50 people viewed the exhibition and many stayed for the opening and for the lively Q&A session that followed. The exhibition was open for viewing on Monday and Tuesday 26th and 27th March also.
On Tuesday 27th May a public meeting heard from Youssef El-Ginghy, an ‘inspirational NHS campaigner’, Sally Hunt, General Secretary of the lecturers’ union UCU, and Helen Mercer, of People vs PFI, Speeches were followed by a very lively debate which ranged from PFI to financialisation and modern monetary theory to the current lecturers’ strike.
Sussex Defend the NHS reports:
“Last weekend over 100 people came to see our showing of the brilliant exhibition, Private Finance Initiative: How come we’re still paying for this? . It’s clear that PFI, like outsourcing and other forms of privatisation, is designed to allow private companies to make extravagant profits from public services. The public meeting agreed we should challenge new similar private infrastructure contracts and a future government must end the current schemes and bring them under full public control.”
Please click below to see the panels provided by Sussex Defend the NHS. Many thanks for fantastic support!
Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital