PROTESTORS from across the region have gathered in Leeds to demonstrate against controversial NHS plans to create new companies.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke’s Hospital, is looking to set up a subsidiary company and one is being established by the Airedale NHS Foundation Trust.

It means the management and maintenance of hospital estates and facilities - and the staff that provide these services - could be moved from the NHS into the new companies.

Unison has lead the campaign against the plans across Yorkshire and Humberside, warning that they would create a two-tier workforce and drive people away from the NHS.

Campaigners from across Bradford and West Yorkshire met in Leeds' Millennium Square yesterday to voice their concerns about the plans.

Cllr Sinead Engel, a Bradford ward councillor for Clayton and Fairweather Green, has thrown her support behind the protestors.

She said: "I wanted to stand in solidarity with the workers and those campaigning against changes.

"I don't think it's beneficial to anyone involved.

"It degrades the workers involved and degrades the teamwork we all rely on so much, and creates a hostile atmosphere when people are receiving care.

"It will have a negative impact on the public needing treatment because we can tell when something isn't right.

"You can tell when a workforce is distracted or not concentrating on a job, and this privatisation is against the whole ethos of the NHS.

"Private companies are making a profit from something that is supposed to be free and if we don't shout about it, we will lose something that's precious to most people in this country."

Sarah Keigh, an organiser of the protest, said they are trying to meet with directors of all the Trusts to discuss the changes.

Dr Louise Irvine, secretary to the National Health Action Party, added: "The National Health Action Party wholly supports UNISON’s stance on this issue. Hard working NHS staff do not deserve to be placed into the private sector against their will where their rights, pay and working conditions will be undermined.

"The growth of wholly owned subsidiaries puts our NHS in danger by opening it up to privatisation through the back door.

"The NHS works best for patients when staff are working together as a team. The creation of subsidiaries leads to the creation of a two-tier work force within NHS Trusts and this undermines staff morale and has a negative impact upon the quality of care.

"They’re especially not needed during the NHS’s current recruitment and retention crisis which has been caused by Tory spending cuts."