Two hundred health workers and their supporters marched in Dorchester on Saturday to oppose privatisation of 1,700 jobs at hospitals in Dorset.
Assembling in the town centre, marchers made their way to Dorset County Hospital, where many staff are affected by plans to transfer their jobs from the National Health Service to a “SubCo” – a private company outside the NHS.
Organised by Unison, the health workers union, the march aimed to alert members of the public to dangers posed by the SubCo plan.
Carrie Hartridge, chair of Unison Dorset Health, said: “This is the biggest-ever threat to hospital services in Dorset. Health executives want to move key jobs out of the NHS, including caterers, medical engineers, sterile supplies, porters, cleaners and those who maintain our hospitals as safe and secure.”
Carrie Hartridge commented that privatisation brought “inefficiency, corruption, loss of jobs and even collapse of services” citing water privatisation as an example which had “been a disaster, resulting in pollution, sewage in our rivers and seas, and rocketing bills”.
Staff from Dorset County Hospital were joined on the demonstration by teachers, council workers, and health workers from hospitals in Poole and Bournemouth, and from community hospitals across the county – all of which are affected by the SubCo plan.
Lynne Hubbard from Unison said: “We understand what privatisation means – moving public resources to private hands. Too often it ends in extravagant salaries for executives and declining wages and conditions for others. The SubCo plan offers no long-term security for staff. The new company will aim to make a profit – if it does not, those transferred from the NHS may find their contracts changed, losing rights to pensions, sick pay and maternity pay.”
NHS workers marching in South Street, Dorchester, 2 August 2025.