So with all of our new followers, it seems sensible to tell you a little bit about who we are and what we do! EveryDoctor is a membership collective of doctors and medical students which is supportive of doctors and who believe in the NHS and what it does for all of us.
We have just over 1650 members, and we also run The Political Mess on Facebook, the largest private doctors' group of its kind, so that we can draw from as wide a pool as possible, with some small caveats.
We're an explicitly inclusive organisation, with a firm anti-racist, anti-bigotry platform which we seek to protect. We want to be a place where groups who're more vulnerable or marginalised for a range of reasons are able to speak up, so we hear their voices too.
When the pandemic began, our petition of 45000 voices called on the Health Secretary to deliver masks, goggles, gowns and gloves to every NHS worker, not just frontline staff. Because of our persistence, NHS England changed its guidance on eye protection and procedures like CPR.
As the cases worsened, we stepped up our efforts. We ran 17 parliamentary briefings with MPs to give them the facts about the crisis. 104 cross-party MPs from every nation backed the #ProtectNHSworkers campaign. More details at: ProtectNHSWorkers.org.uk.
As it became obvious that disinformation about COVID was becoming a significant issue, @Tom_the_Knowles and @megs1970 gave evidence to the @CommonsDCMS committee, and contributed to the framing of the committee's Online Harms legislation. We worked closely with @Avaaz
This work is ongoing. We currently engaged in a related project with the WHO European Office, and when legislation is brought before Parliament in the new session, we will seek to safeguard public health and the public interest.
At EveryDoctor we reflected inwards, looking at the biases and barriers in our own workplaces. More than a thousand EveryDoctor supporters signed an open letter to NHS leaders stating we need a zero-tolerance policy on racism towards BAME staff and to fix the racial pay gap.
Throughout this year, we’ve worked closely with @abenaopp to escalate the issues of racism and discrimination within the NHS in Parliament and to the EHRC. We spoke out when PPE was ill-fitting for staff with turbans and beards. We know it’s not a battle that can be won in a day.
Our NHS is one team. No matter our speciality, faith, background, or country of origin, we’re proud that we have all pulled together in this crisis to give our patients the very best care. But too many of our colleagues on visas were being crippled by government fees this year.
Forced to pay a jaw-dropping £400 NHS surcharge for each family member, to use the very health service they were helping to run. Others had their lives put on hold because of Home Office delays in issuing their residence cards.
Because we were able to provide a space for colleagues to speak up @HollyLynch5 was able to hear their stories and raise the issues in Parliament. The Home Office finally u-turned to scrap outrageous fees that left so many in debt or struggling. There is still work to do here.
Our court cases with @GoodLawProject are gathering steam. We’re bringing cases against the government for handing out billions of pounds in public money to organisations with no experience supplying PPE. In some cases, huge contracts were given to friends and associates.
With minimal due process, and some of the PPE that they delivered was often unusable. Our work with the @GoodLawProject even triggered an inquiry by the National Audit Office. The cases will continue in the year to come.
We have more in the works, and more good we believe we can do. Thank you for the support you've shown us this last couple of days, and for indulging my lengthy thread. Examples of our media engagement can be found on our website, everydoctor.org.uk
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