UK

Continuing the fight – SHA’s leadership team reflect on 2024 and the challenges for 2025

FEBRUARY 14, 2025

By the Socialist Health Association leadership team

The Socialist Health Association is one of the 20 Socialist Societies affiliated to Labour. Like some unions, we have a (small) voice in the affairs of the Party. The current SHA leadership stands firmly for Labour’s traditional values. In health, that means restoring a fully free, fully comprehensive, fully publicly funded, fully publicly provided, and fully publicly run national health and social care service of the highest standard, fighting all forms of inequality in our society and promoting health and wellbeing through socialist principles, as we have done since 1930.

We pay tribute to our outgoing chair, Mark Ladbrooke, who now takes on the mammoth job of national secretary.

We are proud that, under his leadership, in 2024 we backed socialist MPs in the fight for a Labour Government. We endorsed them, helped to fund their campaigns and we volunteered!

At Labour Conference we celebrated victory over the Tories and explained the huge problems of using the market to provide public services.  We worked with union colleagues to demand the best from our incoming Labour government – to abolish the two-child benefit cap, to maintain winter fuel payments and to fund the NHS for winter pressures…  And we will continue!

Our conference motion warned of a two-tier health system with fully qualified doctors being increasingly replaced by rapidly trained physician associates with poor levels of professional support, regulation and accountability.

We contributed to the NHS review, spoke at CLPs and worked with fellow health campaigners as part of the SOSNHS coalition, challenging the drive to make the NHS a mere broker for health corporations. We support demands for a National Care Service to fix the wreckage of our privatised, fragmented, asset-stripped social care system.

Parliamentary briefings have gone to MPs (only possible with the expertise and enthusiasm of our members). Two new branches of the SHA have been launched.

We have returned to our roots as an internationalist organisation. Huge thanks to all who have participated – marching with us on the streets, joining rallies and demonstrations and speaking out at events all over the country. We know that our members demand justice for Palestinians and an end to attacks on health care and breaches of international humanitarian law.

Our SHA leadership team will maintain this stance and develop it in 2025.

Meet the SHA 2025 team

Chair – Dr Rathi Guhadasan Secretary – Mark Ladbrooke Treasurer – Esther Giles

Vice Chairs: Dr Jatinder Hayre, Lesley Spillard, Barbara Roberts, Mads Wainman.

Central Council members: Caroline Bedale, Tony Beddow, Carmel Cadden, Brian Gibbons, Terry Harper, Mark Howell, Judith Kramer, Julius Marstrand, Liz Peretz, Adrian Scandrett, Pat Schan, Harry Stratton, Carmen Williams, Julian Williams, Pam Wortley.

2025 is a crucial year. The NHS and social care remains in crisis, with no hope on offer for staff or patients. The new US administration has brought devastating threats to global health, with the most marginalised and vulnerable the worst affected.

Join the fight at https://sochealth.co.uk/

Photos: c/o SHA