We believe easing of the lockdown, and the active encouragement to return to work, is premature and unsafe given the high rate of ongoing infection1, that the R0 value is very close to, and in some areas is above 1 and the test, trace and isolate system is months away from being properly functioning. In […]
June 1 2020 heralded the official start of the easing of the lockdown that has been in place since 23rd March to try to contain the spread of Covid 19. The current reality is that due to the Westminster Government’s repeatedly vague and confusing messaging, compounded by their unwavering support of the Prime Minister’s rule […]
On the 7th May, Doctors in Unite expressed its full support for the National Education Union’s five tests before schools could take in more children and colleges re-open. In brief, these tests were: Far lower numbers of COVID-19 cases A national plan for social distancing Testing, testing, testing Whole school strategy for testing in the […]
Doctors in Unite believe that comprehensive, publicly coordinated and community based ‘isolate, trace and support’ procedures are vital for control of the COVID-19 pandemic as lockdown is eased. To keep the frequency of new cases in the community manageable people must be supported to self isolate once they are identified as potentially infectious. To this end […]
In January 2019, Doctors in Unite issued proposals relating to public health and primary care. This document has now been revised, and can be found here. (This is distinct from a similarly titled set of proposals called Primary Care & Public Health: A Vision For Revitalising General Practice). In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic the […]
Doctors in Unite is delighted that the government have seen sense and ended the NHS surcharge for overseas health workers. We all owe health workers from overseas a huge debt. They often carry out the work which attracts the lowest pay, and without them the NHS would collapse. They don’t just contribute in the hours […]
We believe that the failure of the UK government to properly coordinate testing for COVID-19 has contributed to the UK suffering the highest death toll in Europe. Countries that have had lower mortality adopted robust testing strategies early on. Testing centres are not local to where most people live. A common stipulation is that they […]
The rising death rate from COVID-19 and the pressure of the pandemic on a weakened NHS have caused warranted anxiety. There were reports from Italy of rationing, when life saving equipment was simply unavailable for some sick patients, and difficult triage decisions had to be made by doctors. Many deaths in the UK are occurring […]
Doctors in Unite reiterate our opposition to any scoring system being used as a blanket cut-off to people accessing hospital care. We understand that conversations with patients about their wishes with regard to treatment and end of life care can be very helpful to ensure dignity in dying, but these must be undertaken with the […]
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 […]
Doctors in Unite 