by Gill George, Keep Hackney NHS Public

We've had a stunning victory over the Government's plans to privatise huge chunks of the NHS - you have probably seen the media coverage over the last two days. The Government is in real disarray over the NHS - and much of the credit goes to local Hackney activists!

On Tuesday, local activists came across an official Government advert, in the Journal of the European Union, that was offering massive chunks of the NHS to the private sector. This was major - it opened the door to big American companies like United Health taking over about 80% of the NHS budget, spending it in the private sector, and effectively dismantling the NHS.

Because I have a senior position in the trade union Amicus, I was able to get the national union on to this the moment the story broke. Amicus took it to a TUC General Council meeting on Wednesday morning, and a joint union campaign meeting - Amicus, Unison, RCN, GMB, CSP - on Wednesday evening. The unions were up in arms about this massive attack. For the first time, it looks as though unions are serious about working together to defend the NHS.

As the story became known, union reps in London also lobbied MPs - who knew nothing at all about it!

Meanwhile, supporters of Keep Hackney NHS Supporters did a magnificent job of badgering the national media until they found journalists who were interested. The BBC didn't want to know. The Guardian and the Times recognised that the dismantling of the NHS was a story - and both started quizzing the Government on Thursday, and ran front page stories on the NHS on Friday.

The links to the press stories are here:

• Guardian [1]

• Times [2]

By Thursday afternoon, the Government was under pressure from the unions, the media, back bench MPs, and even a good few Chief Executives of Primary Care Trusts! At 6pm on Thursday night, they suddenly found 'drafting errors' in the advert that was selling off the NHS. The advert was withdrawn. The Government is incredibly vulnerable on health. The NHS is still in deep trouble, but this shows that when we stand up to the Government, we can make them retreat.