SUPPORTERS of Labour’s South West Wiltshire constituency handed out thousands of leaflets to shoppers in towns across Wiltshire for the party’s ‘defend our NHS’ day of action on Saturday (November 26).

Leaflets which contained information on the current state of the NHS were handed out to people in Trowbridge, Warminster, Westbury and Mere with the aim of increasing public awareness.

The day of action was organised by the party nationally after a report published last week revealed the enormous deficits of NHS trusts across England.

Tony Free of Warminster Labour Party said: "The biggest threat to the NHS is creeping privatisation.

“More and more NHS funds are being syphoned off by private companies.

“Despite there being no public desire for the NHS to be privatised, the sneaky march to privatisation continues.

“We have already seen public incredulity as all community child health services in Wiltshire were sold off to Richard Branson in a £64 million deal.

“Staff morale is at a very low ebb as private companies hover like buzzards, hoping to grab any services they get a chance to pick off."

A report by the National Audit Office released on Tuesday revealed that two third of NHS trusts have reported a deficit of around £1.85bn.

The day had been in the pipeline for months but was given 'added force' by Philip Hammond’s neglect of the NHS during his mini-budget on Wednesday, the Labour Party said.

Eden Morris, 52 from Warminster, said: "This government has gone too far, they try to tell us that things are better in the NHS but the public is not daft. We are well aware how difficult it can be just to get a GP's appointment.

“We see many elderly people stuck in hospital beds only there because sufficient home care is not available.

“It was a ridiculous false economy when the government got rid of district nurses and replaced them with care from private companies, employing staff on zero hours contracts.”