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commissioning COVID-19 Defend the NHS DiU and Unite Government Policy Masks PPE Privatisation Staying safe Testing Transmission Unite Leader statements Workplace COVID Zero COVID and Government Strategy

Speech by Dr Jackie Applebee, Chair of Doctors in Unite to the BMA Annual Representative Meeting, 15 September 2020

Dr Applebee proposed the motion by TOWER HAMLETS DIVISION of the BMA: That this meeting, in response to COVID 19, demands that government: i) ensure that workers are not under pressure to attend work either for financial or workforce reasons while they are unwell or self-isolating and at risk of inadvertently passing on the disease; […]

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commissioning Defend the NHS Government Policy Local Authority Privatisation

Matt Hancock offered to auction his football shirt for the NHS – we need proper funding, not charity gimmicks

Doctors in Unite would like to remind the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care that the NHS is not a charity but a government funded health service, set up in 1948 with the specific intention to remove health care from the precarious state of reliance on income or beneficence. Matt Hancock has his […]

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commissioning COVID-19 Defend the NHS Government Guidelines Government Policy Privatisation

Despite coronavirus and clapping, the Tories remain hostile to a public NHS

In recent weeks we have among others seen Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock and members of the Royal family (all of whom it’s safe to guess have never used the NHS) joining in the public applause for key workers. Additionally, there have been a number of structural changes and commitments to increased funding that make it […]

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commissioning Defend the NHS Government Policy Privatisation

The private sector needs radical reform for patients to be kept safe

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 […]

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commissioning Government Policy Social Care

An unequal society is an unhealthy society

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 […]

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commissioning COVID-19 Government Guidelines Government Policy

Coronavirus: how will an overstretched NHS cope?

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 […]