CORNWALL HUMANISTS MEETING     JANUARY 2015

We listened most attentively to Rik Evans, prospective Parliamentary Candidate of the National Health Action Party for the Truro / Falmouth Constituency who had been invited to speak to the Cornwall Humanists for their monthly meeting held in the Conference room in the Fal building at Truro College.

Rik Evans had spent 30 years on a variety of health board in Cornwall and the last 6 years as a non-executive board member of the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust. He resigned from that position when the trust decided to privatise the Hotel Services.

Members felt that it was very wrong to call people who do very important, indeed absolutely essential work such as cooking, cleaning, transporting patients from ward to ward and many similar tasks ‘Hotel Services’.

There was also much sympathy amongst the Humanists present for these people who, until recent privatisation, felt very much part of the Health Service, felt that although their pay was low, they were, together with nurses doctors and many others, part of a service that helped the community within which they all live, part of the National Health Service. However now, being privatised, all they were doing were working for shareholders who expect a profit from the work they were doing and that this profit will have to come from the National Health Budget.

Much surprise was expressed that other Board Trust members did not see the psychological unhappiness / depression they would create amongst their staff by privatising their services , taking them out of the National Health Service, of which they were proud to be a member , to a private contractor. It was felt that a happy, contented work force will often give that bit extra when needed, yet not if all it means is to making a profit for shareholders.

The Humanist programme for the whole of 2015 is now available on: www.cornwallhumanists.org.uk.
Interested members of the public are most welcome to join the lectures / discussions.

Peter Blake