I know that we’re all reeling about this cascade of examples of MPs furthering their own and corporate financial interests.
I am furious. I’m furious that these names, these people, these MPs ignored our emails at the height of the first wave as frontline workers died...
many unprotected, many with no PPE, continuing to go to the frontline day after day. I am furious about the dozens of emails we sent, I sent, time after time, as doctors and others tried to make sense of what was happening, tried to rally, tried to find solutions. I am furious..
For every nurse told to look after a patient without protection. I am furious for every GP who had no PPE and went to B+Q to buy Perspex to hammer a screen around their reception area. I am furious for every healthcare workers told to REMOVE their mask in hospital because...
...it was ‘alarming patients’. And I’m furious because over 1500 frontline workers died. And as they worked on the frontline, as their families had sleepless nights, as they got sick and many died, and we raised the alarm again and again, these MPs, these ones in the papers...
ignored us. Ignored us. They ignored the emails inviting them to hear facts, they did not lobby for protections for workers. They were not concerned.
I know your names. I know your names because I pored over your names late at night as my own husband worked, running a central..
London ICU. And I feared that he would die. And I tried as best I could to connect with politicians and help them to understand the situation and convey the changes needed to protect lives.
I know your names. And when I read these articles about your second jobs and your...
Trips abroad, abandoning your station and your efforts to promote the interests of private companies I am disgusted.
I am disgusted. And so should everyone else be. This country deserves better.
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🚨One GP has already sustained a fractured skull in patient-led violence. If things now escalate, it will be Sajid Javid’s fault 🚨
🧵 I’m a doctor, and I’m not prone to sensationalism. Here are some facts, which we delivered to MPs, journalists and our network yesterday...
1. We do not have enough GPs. 2. Jeremy Hunt pledged that we’d have 5000 more by 2020. He failed. 3. Matt Hancock pledged that we’d have 6000 more by 2024/25.
We currently have 1904 LESS FT than 2015.
4. We have 76 GPs per 100,000 ppl, in some places as low as 54/100,000...
In comparison Portugal has 244 (latest figures, 2018 and 2019).
5. There are almost 2 million more patients registered at NHS GP surgeries now than August 2018.
6. We compared 3rd week of August 2019 (pre-pandemic) with same week 2021. GPs did 1/4 million MORE appointments...
You’re responsible for a lot. The buck stops with you. You learn this at medical school after battling for a place. You take this very, very seriously. At a time when others might be carefree, you miss weddings, you miss sleep...
You miss a stable life (forced to move around constantly to gain experience). For the early years of your career you have no stable work colleagues, on the move every 3-6 months. You carry on. You hold a bleep, it rings and rings. You cover staff gaps near-constantly....
When you’re off work you have professional obligations to behave in a particular manner. You take them seriously. Responsibility weighs heavy on your head. It’s very, very hard. You see things you wish you could forget. You make difficult decisions. You respect your colleagues...
🛑Cut the bed numbers
🛑Cut the funding
🛑Offer contracts to private providers but allow them to use NHS logo
🛑Freeze wages, worsen conditions...
🛑Scapegoat local leaders whose workplace is ‘failing’
🛑Regular re-organisation due to ‘failings’, create new inefficiencies and bureaucracy, offer entry points to corporate ‘partners’
🛑Vilify staff in the press.
(Crucially use opinion pieces to sow distrust)
🛑Continue...
to publicly ‘support and love our NHS’ despite all actions above👆
Watch the service fail🚨
Watch the exhausted staff leave🚨
Blame remaining staff for gaps/failings🚨
Wring hands and act bemused🚨
Hand over more money to private providers🚨
Alright here goes. There’s nothing new about a woman coming onto Twitter and explaining that she’s been abused online; but since a lot of you support @EveryDoctorUK I’d like to respect that by telling you what’s been going on for me.
It’s ramped up, the abuse. Both in degree...
and in its nature (wishes I were dead etc). And in the heat of campaigning, sometimes the adrenaline carries you through this sort of thing. It’s when things get a little quieter that it hits you.
It hit me about a fortnight ago and I wanted to hide away. I’ve taken some time..
to think. It’s not new for me to receive abuse for taking up room, but I won’t bore you with the details. Essentially, we have two options when we’re bullied. We can hide, or we can crack on. I’ve decided to be more, not less honest, and bring more of myself to this platform...
Politicians; please start talking about threats against NHS staff.
I gave up my job to lobby to protect my colleagues. I receive emails telling me the sender wishes I were dead.
1500 frontline health and social care workers have died of this virus. They were not protected by..
this government. They gave their lives. And the waves of trauma and grief and stress just keep coming. They keep on coming, because the NHS, in a health crisis, is the last line of defence. And when our leaders do not take responsibility, are not accountable, lie, gaslight...
And bluff, the public don’t know what to think. The public haven’t been supported economically. The public are given unclear public health messaging. The public are grieving.
And who takes the hit? Who is abused when that hurt spills over to anger and violence? Frontline...
I’m not ‘meant’ to write this tweet thread. I’m ‘meant’ to just talk about the NHS. But frankly, I stopped working in the NHS because I received threats about what would happen to me if I ‘carried on like this’, and if you’re up for shelving your medical career because you’re...
terrified for doctors’ safety (because the government intentionally make working conditions more and more unbearable) then why stop there?
I know about political songs. My first campaign was a political song, protesting about the unsafe, unfair junior doctor contracts. Music...
Has a way of energising people which is unmatched. Unmatched. Our song went viral, from nowhere. We sang it to hundreds of thousands of people. Music connects people. It’s powerful.
This government did not protect the public. They did not protect NHS workers. They deny racism..