Thread by @danielgoyal

Thoughts on the joint statement issued by Royal College, BMA, etc..

Defending healthcare from new government demands

Please RT, change will only occur if the public support it..

bit.ly/3aneDrU

A number of national bodies have written a joint statement highlighting the pressures on the health service and staff.

The public are upset they have reduced access to care.

The government wants more face to face consults and for waiting lists to fall…

But these demands are made when:

1. Our bed capacity remains lower than it has ever been. Despite WHO advice to increase basic care capacity to manage the additional patients, this Leadership reduced it by 8%. Less beds = less frontline staff.

2. The government have embarked on a herd immunity strategy, leading to 500-1000 admissions per day!

At the current rate of covid, this has TRIPLED the healthcare burden of pneumonia - already one of the highest burden diseases. And taken up around 6% of all beds.

3. We have still been unable to provide the level of care to Covid patients they need, even at the level recommended for low-income countries.

thelancet.com/journals/lanep…

4. There are even less GPs than last year, due to unmanageable working conditions. And many HCWs are leaving the profession.

So in short, the gov have released a high burden pathogen into the community, shrunken the capacity of the NHS, and are now asking us to provide more consults and reduce waiting lists. It is a delusional rhetoric, in my view, designed to apportion blame to the “lazy” NHS when …

the reality is that the lack of access to healthcare the public are suffering is a direct result of this leaderships decisions or lack of an actual plan #CovidInquiryNow

What we need now is…

1. Clinical Prioritisation

Trying to deliver the same level of care with more patients and less capacity will only lead to worse outcomes for all involved, and more people leaving the profession.

The colleges (@RCPhysicians @rcgp, @RCEMPolicyVP, @rcpsych) need to issue guidelines about clinical priorities within the context of this government’s healthcare rationing policies. We need to keep patients safe and staff functioning.

2. Any resources made available must first go directly to increasing frontline staffing. Acute, urgent, and primary care must be first priority (includes psychiatry).

We have to accept, we are not working in a world-class health system. Focus limited resource on high risk areas

3. We need an urgent public inquiry to understand what provision the state is making for protecting the health of the UK public.

Finally, to my colleagues, our duty is not to government or policy or even our managers,…our duty is to the patient. We must prioritise our workloads. It is unsafe to work 80 hours per week. And yes, the public will be unhappy…but they have the address of the man in charge.

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