More than 2,000 people protesting potential cuts to the national health care system staged a sit-in on Westminster Bridge in London on Sunday afternoon, blocking traffic on one of the city's busiest bridges, The Guardian reports.
The rally was organized by a group called UK Uncut to draw attention to a bill scheduled to go before the Parliament's House of Lords this week. The bill, protesters say, could lead to sweeping changes to parts of the country's socialized health care system, the National Health Service.
The changes are part of the health service's effort to find $31 billion in savings as Britain grapples with the recession's effects.
According to The Guardian, the proposed plan, led by the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, could
take the health service down the road of becoming a national insurance system, with care being provided by competing, state-owned, private and charity providers. Doctors and nurses get to control the services they run. Hospitals are put in a position where they will have to try to cut labor costs. One can argue over the details, but Tony Blair's own reforms would have taken the N.H.S. to the same place, albeit at a far more leisurely pace. Massive change at a time when the budgets are being slashed means there are fears that the rich will pay their way into better health and the poor will have to rely on charity.
Video of the protest, called Block the Bridge, Block the Bill, is being streamed live here.
Several speakers who say they have just arrived from Occupy Wall Street address the crowd.
Around 2 p.m. people in scrubs and hospital masks unfurled a banner over the side of the bridge that read "Save our NHS" The Guardian reports.
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