Camilla Cavendish is too cynical about the BMA & its handling of the doctors' strike.
But she's right on the button when she points out much of 'junior' Doctor disquiet is not about wages but about working conditions.
And this, local Trusts can do something about by offering subsidised meals, free parking & better rests facilities (as has been done in Milton Keynes).
As she concludes, if we want Doctors 'to take care of us, we need to look after them'
Its not just the availability of staff, or of beds/equipment that lies behind the NHS crisis, its a shortage of drugs too....
The Tories wrecking strategy has been multi-dimensional & has come together compounding each element to put us in the position where the political clients of private healthcare can ensure they can profit from the chaos (see earlier post on agency nurses)
The NHS is in real & present danger... and (now) not just from the right!
Another aspect to the staffing crisis in the NHS; the excessive billing for nurses (check out the surplus kept by the agency) providing flexible, emergency shift cover.
The mismanagement of the health service is draining cash out of the system & putting it in private firms' pockets....
And no, its not a bug in the system, its a feature; its classic Tory wrecking.
And any claims by the Tories they're going to end such 'profiteering' should be ignored!
Tonight I'll toast to the AstraZenica #vacine. It was the first one available, and saved millions of lives. I am glad that my first #COVID19 shot was theirs. 💉
“An agency providing last-minute freelance nurses to NHS hospitals is routinely charging up to £2,000 a shift.” Excellent business model for privatised NHS services. #NHS
Ghost sign for the Royal Hospital for Sick Children on Old Dumbarton Road in Glasgow. The city's first dedicated children's hospital, it originally opened in 1882 in Garnethill. In 1914, it moved to new premises in Yorkhill in the West End of Glasgow where it remained until it was replaced by the new Royal Hospital for Children on Govan Road in 2015.
So now cash-strapped NHS trusts are being required to balance their books, and as such are being forced to choose between repairing buildings or retaining staff.
This engineered crisis of the NHS looks to be accelerating as the Tories use their last months in Govt. to squeeze the health service some more & ensure the maximum mess for Labour to deal with on gaining power (a mess so big the Tories will soon start blaming Labour for not clearing it up).
Hospitals are being forced to cut medical staff, threatening their ability to care for patients.
NHS leaders had been recruiting medical staff as part of their efforts to tackle the waiting list backlog, one of Rishi Sunak’s five pledges, but say they are now being told their priority must be to balance the books.
Unless govt funds the recent nurses and doctors pay rises in full, NHS Trusts are bound to be in deficit. The war on the NHS continues.
"oh but my local tory councillor is a lovely person doing great work in the community..." doesn't matter. they're still part of a party that has completely and utterly shagged this country for the last 14 years, a party that welcomes racists, islamophobes, tax dodgers, sexual predators with open arms, gave you #brexit, #austerity, systematically dismantled the #nhs... if your local councillor is such a stand-up person, ask yourself why... #LocalElections#toryScum#neverKissedATory
It's hard to believe we live in a world where Diabetics have to ration their insulin supply or risk death, despite the drug being developed for more than 40 years.
Before you give too much credit to Dan Poulter (MP & doctor) for abandoning the Tories to join Labour, don't forget he's been an MP for 14 years & been working as a doctor all that time.... so one might have expected him to notice the Tory engineered crisis in the NHS quite some time before now.
No, he's defecting because he can see the Tory electoral meltdown coming & wants to preserve his happy position of having two well-paying jobs.