STRIKING Yorkshire healthcare workers yesterday protested outside the London headquarters of a privateer feeding off the government’s carve-up of the NHS.

The Doncaster Care UK workers marched to Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park to deliver the message: “Defend the NHS” to the public.

Striker Nicola Naylor, who has worked as a nurse for 35 years, said qualified staff are quitting Care UK in disgust at its treatment of staff and are being replaced by cheaper, untrained employees.

“The quality of service is being affected, so vulnerable people are being hit. This is all about the privatisation of the NHS,” she said.

The Unison workers are staging a three-week strike — their latest action in one of the longest-running disputes in the history of the NHS.

They were employed by the NHS and contracted to Doncaster Council to support vulnerable people enabling them to live independently.

The council was forced by government privatisation rules to invite tenders for the contract. Privateer Care UK undercut the NHS bid and the 150 NHS workers’ jobs were transferred to the firm.

Within weeks Care UK axed wages by up to £6,000 a year, slashed eight days’ holiday and abolished overtime pay.

The staff voted overwhelmingly for strike action.

Care UK drafted in scab labour in response.

The workers’ courageous action has won support across Yorkshire and beyond, and the dispute has become a focal point for resistance to privatisation of the NHS.

Care UK is owned by profit-hungry private investment firm Bridgepoint, whose London headquarters was targeted by strikers yesterday.

The strikers were confronted by security guards. “The offices were locked. They won’t talk to us,” said Unison Yorkshire organiser Jim Bell.

“New, untrained staff who should have someone with them are working alone. It is wrong. This is the 51st day of industrial action, but morale is stronger than ever.”

The strikers formed a choir and recorded a song about the dispute to raise funds to support their action, which included the words: “We’re fighting for the NHS we are, we are!”

They also used a new banner at the demonstration which read: “A Bridgepoint too far.”

Theresa Rollinson, a senior support worker for 24 years, said: “We are all buoyant and feeling fantastic. This dispute is important. We are raising awareness that the NHS is being sold off.”

Care UK issued a statement belittling the action, but Mr Bell said: “More people have joined the dispute this week — people who were working before.”

nTo support the strikers send cheques payable to Doncaster, District and Bassetlaw Health Branch 20511 to Unison, Jenkinson House, White Rose Way, Doncaster DN4 5GJ.