Jeremy Corbyn and the campaign group he co-founded to protect the Whittington Hospital have a special message they want you to display during the “clap for carers” next Thursday.
Defend the Whittington Hospital Coalition’s (DWHC) sign reads: “Test, test, test, PPE, keep key workers virus free.”
It comes as campaigners call on the government to ramp up testing for Covid-19, and ensure all key workers have adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).
As of Friday, 78 patients with Covid-19 have died at the Whittington and at least two of the hospital’s staff members have died, while two carers have also died at a Highbury care home.
Islington North MP Mr Corbyn told the Gazette: “We’re doing a call out emphasising the value of the Whittington to our community, thanking everyone who works at the Whittington and all the volunteers that have gone to help as well for the fantastic job they’re doing.
“And of course remembering that the Whittington’s A&E department was saved by the community in 2010, and that’s why the hospital is still there able to do such a fantastic job during this crisis.
He added: “We want to make the point that all care workers and health workers all over the country deserve to get proper personal protective equipment.”
Mr Corbyn clarified this isn’t a criticism of the Whittington, which say it has all the PPE it needs.
The MP added: “At the end my road last night we all came out and had a fantastic clap but everybody made the point that all care workers and people involved in public such as bus drivers, people working in shops or so on, deserve to be protected.
“We’ve also got to recognise that the people doing the greatest jobs at the moment, are those often on very low pay and insecure contracts in the care sector, and they deserve to be decently paid in a properly regulated service. And I do think, after the coronavirus crisis is over, and obviously we hope it will be, that we start to reorganise social care on a proper basis and have a national care strategy because at the moment too many people don’t get the care they need and many people, particularly in the care sector, are very badly paid and deserve some recognition of the very skilled and valuable job they do.”
Please send pictures and videos of you clapping for carers, or holding signs demanding the government supply them PPE to Lucas.Cumiskey@archant.co.uk.
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