Doctors in UniteAs I write we are at the beginning of the pandemic in the UK. We still have relatively small numbers of cases but they are steadily increasing along with, tragically, associated deaths. There is a very fine line between not fuelling mass panic, which is unhelpful, but also in taking sensible precautions. Public health messages […]
The benign intent of the government in its request that citizens self-isolate to protect others against spreading COVID-19 is not in question. But national and international crises can and have been used to justify an erosion of human rights. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) explains that “man-made conflicts, natural […]
Given the chronic underfunding of the NHS, it is no surprise that rationing appeals to commissioners as a way of limiting expenditure. However, this goes against the NHS Constitution, which establishes that “the NHS provides a comprehensive service, available to all” and “access to NHS services is based on clinical need, not an individual’s ability […]
Recent performance figures show that it is groundhog day once again in the NHS. A series of unwelcome events (missed targets) recur in exactly the same way. But behind these statistics are human stories of unnecessary suffering, that shame those politicians who have tenaciously supported the failed Tory policies of the past ten years. A […]
Michael Walsh, a shoulder surgeon, has been sacked by Spire Healthcare and accused of subjecting scores of patients to unnecessary operations that left many in pain, traumatised and unable to work. This is a depressingly familiar story, with echoes of the case of Ian Paterson, the rogue breast surgeon who also worked for Spire. Paterson […]
Life expectancy is falling for the first time in over a century, driven by growing social inequality and a decade of ideological Conservative austerity. Sir Michael Marmot, the director of University College London’s Health Equity Institute, specifically cited government policy as a driver of worsening health and shorter lives for people in the UK. “England […]
The junior doctors strikes of 2015 were in response to an unprecedented attack on doctorsʼ working conditions, unequal pay and unsafe demands by then Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Now, Doctors in Unite stands in proud solidarity with the striking educators, lecturers and researchers in the University and College Union, who have stood shivering on picket […]
Wuhan Novel Coronavirus (CoVid-19) has claimed over 1,300 lives and infected 60,000 worldwide so far, with no sign of slowing down. The NHS has become an increasingly fragmented service supplied by multiple providers, which is at risk of failing to deliver the co-ordinated, effective response that Coronavirus requires. The last potential pandemic the NHS responded […]
In the late 1980s our union first published proposals for a citizen’s income – what we would now call universal basic income. This was long before the idea became fashionable. Our proposal was simple – we would give an income of two thirds the average GDP per person to everyone, so long as they contributed […]
The UK’s oldest medical trade union has sent an open letter to the four Labour party leadership contenders, demanding they recognise climate change as a public health emergency. Doctors in Unite said that flooding, heatwaves, tropical diseases and toxic air pollution are already putting the public’s health at risk. The union’s chair Dr Jackie Applebee […]
Doctors in Unite