BRIGHTON (Reuters), Sep 12 - Up to 1,000 National Health Service (NHS) supply workers plan to strike against privatization in the U.K.'s health service, the country's largest union Unison said on Monday.
Nearly 1,000 workers in NHS Logistics voted by 74% to take industrial action over the outsourcing of contracts to German company DHL -- the first nationwide strike in the NHS since 1988, Unison added.
NHS Logistics deal with the delivery of vaccines, bandages, syringes, food, drink, uniforms, and other equipment to surgeries and hospitals.
A strike timetable will be decided on Friday and, when it begins, the action is expected to have an immediate impact on supplies.
"These are not trouble-makers, not hard-liners but workers who care deeply about the NHS," Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said of the strikers.
"(They are) hard-working public service workers who have never ever taken strike action before, making a stand to protect their service and protect our NHS," Prentis told delegates at the Trades Union Congress in Brighton.
"If DHL take over the contract, it will turn the clock back 20 years," Prentis said. "Hospitals will need huge storage areas to cope with bulk buying."
Unions and medical staff associations have also launched NHS Together, a joint campaign against what they call creeping privatization in health care that they fear will put patients at risk and waste money.
The group will lobby parliament in the autumn and has scheduled a national demonstration for early next year.
"I think the government would underestimate at its peril quite how precious to the public is the health service," said TUC head Brendan Barber, speaking on the fringe of the conference.
Britain's biggest civil service union, the PCS, said on the eve of the conference it could repeat its 2004 national strike unless the government rethought its reform agenda.
"There will be demonstrators outside every hospital, school, job center, and every public sector building," PCS chief Mark Serwotka told delegates, asking for backing if the union moved to strike within the next few weeks.
By Matt Falloon
Last Updated: 2006-09-11 15:50:48 -0400 (Reuters Health)
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![Examples of ultrasound findings and techniques. (A) Images in a 39-year-old male patient with a mass in the left thigh. The mass is heterogeneous on the B-mode US image (compared with the patient in D) and showed increased microvascularity (superb microvascular imaging [SMI]) and shear-wave elastography (SWE) values. Undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma was diagnosed at biopsy (with pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma in surgical specimen). (B) Images in an 18-year-old male patient with a mass in the left leg. The mass is hypoechoic on the B-mode image, with no other findings suggestive of malignancy. The lesion is in contact with the cortex of the tibia, which is slightly irregular. CT revealed a doubtful anteromedial tibial erosion. The microvascular study demonstrated high vascularization, suggestive of malignancy. Periosteal Ewing sarcoma was diagnosed with both histologic and immunohistochemical confirmation. (C) Images in a 69-year-old female patient with a lump growing on the outside of the left leg. Multiple SWE examinations were performed (please note the high values obtained in the measurements, whereas the color map highlights the stiffness relative to adjacent tissues). SMI showed areas of increased vascularization to target for sampling. Undifferentiated spindle cell sarcoma was diagnosed at biopsy, with residual leiomyosarcoma in the surgical specimen after neoadjuvant therapy. (D) Images in a 56-year-old female patient with a mass in the right thigh. The mass is heterogeneous at both B-mode ultrasound (similar to patient A) and MRI (coronal T2-weighted spectral attenuated inversion recovery [SPAIR]; T1-weighted pre-contrast and postcontrast imaging), which even shows uptake after the administration of paramagnetic contrast material, which is traditionally suggestive of malignancy. Low values at SMI and elastography are suggestive of benignity. Spindle cell lipoma was diagnosed at biopsy, with atypical spindle cell lipomatous tumor in the surgical specimen.](https://img.auntminnieeurope.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/08/images-radiol250278fig2.APCFLSvX6p.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=crop&h=100&q=70&w=100)
![Examples of ultrasound findings and techniques. (A) Images in a 39-year-old male patient with a mass in the left thigh. The mass is heterogeneous on the B-mode US image (compared with the patient in D) and showed increased microvascularity (superb microvascular imaging [SMI]) and shear-wave elastography (SWE) values. Undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma was diagnosed at biopsy (with pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma in surgical specimen). (B) Images in an 18-year-old male patient with a mass in the left leg. The mass is hypoechoic on the B-mode image, with no other findings suggestive of malignancy. The lesion is in contact with the cortex of the tibia, which is slightly irregular. CT revealed a doubtful anteromedial tibial erosion. The microvascular study demonstrated high vascularization, suggestive of malignancy. Periosteal Ewing sarcoma was diagnosed with both histologic and immunohistochemical confirmation. (C) Images in a 69-year-old female patient with a lump growing on the outside of the left leg. Multiple SWE examinations were performed (please note the high values obtained in the measurements, whereas the color map highlights the stiffness relative to adjacent tissues). SMI showed areas of increased vascularization to target for sampling. Undifferentiated spindle cell sarcoma was diagnosed at biopsy, with residual leiomyosarcoma in the surgical specimen after neoadjuvant therapy. (D) Images in a 56-year-old female patient with a mass in the right thigh. The mass is heterogeneous at both B-mode ultrasound (similar to patient A) and MRI (coronal T2-weighted spectral attenuated inversion recovery [SPAIR]; T1-weighted pre-contrast and postcontrast imaging), which even shows uptake after the administration of paramagnetic contrast material, which is traditionally suggestive of malignancy. Low values at SMI and elastography are suggestive of benignity. Spindle cell lipoma was diagnosed at biopsy, with atypical spindle cell lipomatous tumor in the surgical specimen.](https://img.auntminnieeurope.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/08/images-radiol250278fig2.APCFLSvX6p.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
