And exactly who was it who didn't follow procedures but went around shaking hands with all and sundry and catching Covid and putting the NHS under huge strain having to treat him and save his life?
And as for 'not following procedures as well as they could have' ... has he forgotten his pal who drove his ill wife and his child to his 'second home' risking all and sundry ... not to mention driving around the county to 'check his eyesight' ......... we haven't forgotten even if Boris has .......... did someone mention 'ongoing memory problems' from Covid 19? "...Helms and her colleagues published a small study in the New England Journal of Medicine documenting the neurological symptoms in their Covid-19 patients, ranging from cognitive difficulties to confusion ..." https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200622-the-long-term-effects-of-covid-19-infection
Instead of blaming heroic care home staff, maybe start looking a bit closer to home for folk to blame Boris?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I have come to firmly believe Tory means liar, selfish and ME, ME, ME hypocrite. They grew up believing "There is NO society.....", as their great leader taught them. It has served them well, so why should they care about "the low skilled"?
“I am
an NHS GP, and when a local school rang me as duty doctor for my 10,000
patients on Monday 24 February, to complain of a number of cases of a febrile
illness, having returned 48 hours earlier from a half term ski trip to the
Italian Alps....
2/
I suspected
what we have come to know as Covid-19.
I
declined them face to face appointments as we had no PPE, save for gloves. When
central supplies did come, around a month later, they were expired “07/2016”
and rebadged with a cheap sticker....
3/
Even
then, all we got were plastic pinnies & simple fluid-repellent masks to
last us about a week (when the WHO was advising FFP3 masks, cuff covers, visors
& gowns). Batches of the rebadged masks were revealed last week to not be
safe and practices advised to destroy them.
4/
How
many of us became unwell, or unwittingly passed on the virus to others? How
many potentially died from that catastrophic failure to plan for the
inevitable?
Even
when, 20 years ago, as an undergraduate at UCL medical school, I had been taught
by @DrMikeRyan (look him up)
5/
is now
WHO’s exec director of the health emergencies programme. In a prescient day’s
teaching in UCH ED, he made us all wear PPE, & talked us through what we
would need to do as frontline clinicians in a civilian emergency or global
pandemic.
6/
He
said these eventualities were as certain as cancer, heart attacks &
strokes. 3 years later he led the response at UCH during the 7/7 terrorist
attacks & has been prominent throughout the WHO’s guidance on Covid-19.
This should not have been a surprise. We had warning.
7/
I’ve
had the privilege to be in a leadership role for my profession for almost 20
yrs. I sat on the BMA’s UK GP committee during the 2009 H1N1 swine flu
pandemic, & heard 1st hand then, how the medical profession liaised with
public health, government and local authorities.
8/
How
each winter we would plan for potential surges in excess mortality. Put aside
stores of PPE. Keep logistical plans on the shelf ready to be used out of the
blue.
2020 is starkly different to 2009. Yrs of austerity has cut any capacity there
might have been in the NHS.
9/
Systems
are in deficit to the tunes of millions. As a GP, commissioners would like me
to prescribe & investigate less, refer fewer, but see more patients and
diagnose more cancer. Not an easy maths puzzle.
Local authorities are in crisis & we see that no more than in
10/
multimorbid
sequelae of those in poverty. But what to bring on the UK after yrs of public
sector cuts? The largest single episode of deliberate self harm that is Brexit.
Brexit prioritised politics over preparation. Those pandemic logistical action
plans were unaffordable.
11/
PPE
allocations were swept aside as a luxury we probably won’t need, so probably
shouldn’t bother.
Public health has been decimated as a medical specialty over the past decade.
Public Health England itself is a strange body that seemingly issues
guidance...
12/
but
doesn’t have the mandate to ensure NHS England commissions it. And NHS England
doesn’t have the funds to commission it. So it doesn’t. And public health is
left in limbo - a hot potato thrown between EDs & GPs: it belongs to
neither, & neither are funded to provide it.
13/
So
when I declined to bring in the febrile ski trip that February morning, I
called a panicked PHE for advice. We knew this was coming. We should have had
ready stocks of PPE. We should have had notifiable illness algorithms to
follow. We had neither.
14/
In the
absence of a reliable IgM diagnostic test we should have put in place simple
contract tracing. It isn’t rocket science. It’s the preventative arm of every
sexual health clinic in the world. It didn’t need to be difficult. It was
bizarre to Drs it wasn’t being done...
15/
In the
absence of a reliable IgG antibody test, & knowing what we know about other
coronaviridae, we should have put in place a policy of universal face masks on
public transport/shops as far back as February. The febrile skiers returning
from Italy should have been screened
16/
at LHR
& advised what to do if they became unwell. Quarantine should have been
enforced as it was for the Brits flown back from Wuhan. This isn’t the luxury
of the retrospectoscope. Medical social media was alive with discussions and
debates over these concerns as far back as
17/
Feb
citing South Korea’s example.
I am privileged to be the GP who represents, supports and advises all the GPs
and surgeries that care for the million patients across Cambs. In those early
weeks the silence from government was deafening.
18/
@mentions
issued advice on a weekly, if not daily basis to practices. We put in place a
‘No PPE No See’ policy on 10 March, rapidly transforming consultations to video
/phone, undertaking essential emergency home visits in private PPE that GP Feds
had sourced themselves
19/
at
their own initial expense. Later, govt would refuse to reimburse any PPE that
conferred ‘too much’ protection, only reimbursing the plastic pinnies, fluid
repellent masks and gloves. Endless public goodwill came together to produce
visors at cost price. Thank God.
3
months on, despite promises from government, England’s GPs still haven’t
received essential Covid-19 monies promised by @hmtreasury to cover additional
costs for PPE & staff costs. This is appalling. @bma_gp
And
then it hit. And it was awful.
21/
Heartbreaking
tragic stories have been shared across media. Those in caregiving roles will
know of many more that didn’t reach print, but were no less painful, unfair and
cruel. RIP. There was also a worry about what would happen if/when care homes
were hit.
22/
Some
GP practices advised homes to lockdown prior to the govt advice. Those
decisions saved lives. But those care home staff (often on derisory contractual
compensation for sickness absence) where was their PPE? Where was their ability
to refuse Covid positive patients?
23/
into
Covid negative homes to clear those essential hospital beds for the next poor
influx? But it was ok! Because @BorisJohnson clapped for us every wk. He
doesn’t take the knee because he ‘doesn’t believe in gestures’ but he would
happily clap for carers in front of cameras.
24/
(Whilst
scrapping those nurse bursaries which later had to be embarrassingly
reinstated). And the public have generously donated over £130 million to
@NHSCharities that will only give your little area of the NHS money if you pay
their £1000/year membership fee.
25/
Which
might be ok for those big hospitals & trusts, but no use to your local
surgery, GP or independent community pharmacy. Cummins made a mockery of public
health messages; a grave misjudgement by a man who prides himself on being able
to take the temperature of the nation.
26/
I hope
the nation returns the sleight at the ballot box. We get what we vote for, and
we voted for a craven cabinet of sycophants, prized only for blind RTing &
nodding heads in unison over the leader’s latest ‘oven ready’ glib strapline.
27/
In
identifying where the government have gone wrong, it’s a struggle to understand
where they have gone right?
Doctors are looking to Autumn/Winter with dread. How to roll out a socially
distanced seasonal flu vaccination programme? How can we jab the greatest
number safely?
28/
No SOP
from @NHSEngland as yet, of course. A Govt that refers to ‘SuperSaturday’
hasn’t considered a very real prospect of a novel pandemic influenza strain.
It’s overdue.
But it probably won’t be this year, so let’s not worry about it eh?
What’s the worst that can happen? END.”
I took one
look at this and realised it needed studying, not just glancing over. I
made myself a cuppa and sat down.
It's clear, I think, that people are nothing to political ideology and the wealth of
Tory donors. Gosh!
" each winter we would
plan for potential surges in excess mortality. Put aside stores of PPE. …Yrs
of austerity has cut any capacity there might have been in the NHS.
The largest single episode
of deliberate self harm that is Brexit.. ..Brexit prioritised politics over
preparation. Those pandemic logistical action plans were unaffordable.
" As a GP,
commissioners would like me to prescribe & investigate less, refer
fewer, but see more patients and diagnose more cancer. Not an easy maths
puzzle.
"Public health has been decimated
as a medical specialty over the past decade.
"knowing what
we know about other coronaviridae, we should have put in place a policy of universal
face masks on public transport/shops as far back as February.
"In those early
weeks the silence from government was deafening.....
"We get what we vote for, and we voted for a craven
cabinet of sycophants....."
We did, and the souls of the over
sixty thousand who died because the interests of the rich prohibited the care
of the people, must demand justice.
I have a dream that my.. children.. one day..
will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their
character
Posts
https://www.facebook.com/KeirStarmerLabour/videos/2547591158904792/UzpfSTU0MzMxOTUwNToxMDE1NzY2NjUyMjgzNDUwNg/?epa=SEARCH_BOX
I have a dream that my.. children.. one day.. will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character
Martin Luther KingAnd as for 'not following procedures as well as they could have' ... has he forgotten his pal who drove his ill wife and his child to his 'second home' risking all and sundry ... not to mention driving around the county to 'check his eyesight' ......... we haven't forgotten even if Boris has .......... did someone mention 'ongoing memory problems' from Covid 19?
"...Helms and her colleagues published a small study in the New England Journal of Medicine documenting the neurological symptoms in their Covid-19 patients, ranging from cognitive difficulties to confusion ..." https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200622-the-long-term-effects-of-covid-19-infection
Instead of blaming heroic care home staff, maybe start looking a bit closer to home for folk to blame Boris?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Liars are always highly skilled...
Matthew Parris didn't mince his words when describing him:
The "shallow opportunist" who "broke into Downing Street" thanks to xenophobes and racistis......
Lengthy but it has to be.
https://www.gponline.com/viewpoint-government-handled-coronavirus-i-feel-rant-coming/article/1688935
(PART 1)
“I am an NHS GP, and when a local school rang me as duty doctor for my 10,000 patients on Monday 24 February, to complain of a number of cases of a febrile illness, having returned 48 hours earlier from a half term ski trip to the Italian Alps....
2/
I suspected what we have come to know as Covid-19.
I declined them face to face appointments as we had no PPE, save for gloves. When central supplies did come, around a month later, they were expired “07/2016” and rebadged with a cheap sticker....
3/
Even then, all we got were plastic pinnies & simple fluid-repellent masks to last us about a week (when the WHO was advising FFP3 masks, cuff covers, visors & gowns). Batches of the rebadged masks were revealed last week to not be safe and practices advised to destroy them.
4/
How many of us became unwell, or unwittingly passed on the virus to others? How many potentially died from that catastrophic failure to plan for the inevitable?
Even when, 20 years ago, as an undergraduate at UCL medical school, I had been taught by @DrMikeRyan (look him up)
5/
is now WHO’s exec director of the health emergencies programme. In a prescient day’s teaching in UCH ED, he made us all wear PPE, & talked us through what we would need to do as frontline clinicians in a civilian emergency or global pandemic.
6/
He said these eventualities were as certain as cancer, heart attacks & strokes. 3 years later he led the response at UCH during the 7/7 terrorist attacks & has been prominent throughout the WHO’s guidance on Covid-19. This should not have been a surprise. We had warning.
7/
I’ve had the privilege to be in a leadership role for my profession for almost 20 yrs. I sat on the BMA’s UK GP committee during the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic, & heard 1st hand then, how the medical profession liaised with public health, government and local authorities.
8/
How each winter we would plan for potential surges in excess mortality. Put aside stores of PPE. Keep logistical plans on the shelf ready to be used out of the blue.
2020 is starkly different to 2009. Yrs of austerity has cut any capacity there might have been in the NHS.
9/
Systems are in deficit to the tunes of millions. As a GP, commissioners would like me to prescribe & investigate less, refer fewer, but see more patients and diagnose more cancer. Not an easy maths puzzle.
Local authorities are in crisis & we see that no more than in
10/
multimorbid sequelae of those in poverty. But what to bring on the UK after yrs of public sector cuts? The largest single episode of deliberate self harm that is Brexit. Brexit prioritised politics over preparation. Those pandemic logistical action plans were unaffordable.
11/
PPE allocations were swept aside as a luxury we probably won’t need, so probably shouldn’t bother.
Public health has been decimated as a medical specialty over the past decade. Public Health England itself is a strange body that seemingly issues guidance...
12/
but doesn’t have the mandate to ensure NHS England commissions it. And NHS England doesn’t have the funds to commission it. So it doesn’t. And public health is left in limbo - a hot potato thrown between EDs & GPs: it belongs to neither, & neither are funded to provide it.
13/
So when I declined to bring in the febrile ski trip that February morning, I called a panicked PHE for advice. We knew this was coming. We should have had ready stocks of PPE. We should have had notifiable illness algorithms to follow. We had neither.
14/
In the absence of a reliable IgM diagnostic test we should have put in place simple contract tracing. It isn’t rocket science. It’s the preventative arm of every sexual health clinic in the world. It didn’t need to be difficult. It was bizarre to Drs it wasn’t being done...
15/
In the absence of a reliable IgG antibody test, & knowing what we know about other coronaviridae, we should have put in place a policy of universal face masks on public transport/shops as far back as February. The febrile skiers returning from Italy should have been screened
16/
at LHR & advised what to do if they became unwell. Quarantine should have been enforced as it was for the Brits flown back from Wuhan. This isn’t the luxury of the retrospectoscope. Medical social media was alive with discussions and debates over these concerns as far back as
17/
Feb citing South Korea’s example.
I am privileged to be the GP who represents, supports and advises all the GPs and surgeries that care for the million patients across Cambs. In those early weeks the silence from government was deafening.
18/
@mentions
issued advice on a weekly, if not daily basis to practices. We put in place a ‘No PPE No See’ policy on 10 March, rapidly transforming consultations to video /phone, undertaking essential emergency home visits in private PPE that GP Feds had sourced themselves
19/
at their own initial expense. Later, govt would refuse to reimburse any PPE that conferred ‘too much’ protection, only reimbursing the plastic pinnies, fluid repellent masks and gloves. Endless public goodwill came together to produce visors at cost price. Thank God.
(PART 2 FOLLOWS)
https://www.gponline.com/viewpoint-government-handled-coronavirus-i-feel-rant-coming/article/1688935
(PART 2)
20/
3 months on, despite promises from government, England’s GPs still haven’t received essential Covid-19 monies promised by @hmtreasury to cover additional costs for PPE & staff costs. This is appalling. @bma_gp
And then it hit. And it was awful.
21/
Heartbreaking tragic stories have been shared across media. Those in caregiving roles will know of many more that didn’t reach print, but were no less painful, unfair and cruel. RIP. There was also a worry about what would happen if/when care homes were hit.
22/
Some GP practices advised homes to lockdown prior to the govt advice. Those decisions saved lives. But those care home staff (often on derisory contractual compensation for sickness absence) where was their PPE? Where was their ability to refuse Covid positive patients?
23/
into Covid negative homes to clear those essential hospital beds for the next poor influx? But it was ok! Because @BorisJohnson clapped for us every wk. He doesn’t take the knee because he ‘doesn’t believe in gestures’ but he would happily clap for carers in front of cameras.
24/
(Whilst scrapping those nurse bursaries which later had to be embarrassingly reinstated). And the public have generously donated over £130 million to @NHSCharities that will only give your little area of the NHS money if you pay their £1000/year membership fee.
25/
Which might be ok for those big hospitals & trusts, but no use to your local surgery, GP or independent community pharmacy. Cummins made a mockery of public health messages; a grave misjudgement by a man who prides himself on being able to take the temperature of the nation.
26/
I hope the nation returns the sleight at the ballot box. We get what we vote for, and we voted for a craven cabinet of sycophants, prized only for blind RTing & nodding heads in unison over the leader’s latest ‘oven ready’ glib strapline.
27/
In identifying where the government have gone wrong, it’s a struggle to understand where they have gone right?
Doctors are looking to Autumn/Winter with dread. How to roll out a socially distanced seasonal flu vaccination programme? How can we jab the greatest number safely?
28/
No SOP from @NHSEngland as yet, of course. A Govt that refers to ‘SuperSaturday’ hasn’t considered a very real prospect of a novel pandemic influenza strain. It’s overdue.
But it probably won’t be this year, so let’s not worry about it eh? What’s the worst that can happen? END.”
Am I right in thinking your daughter is a GP?
I took one look at this and realised it needed studying, not just glancing over. I made myself a cuppa and sat down.
It's clear, I think, that people are nothing to political ideology and the wealth of Tory donors. Gosh!
" each winter we would plan for potential surges in excess mortality. Put aside stores of PPE. …Yrs of austerity has cut any capacity there might have been in the NHS.
The largest single episode of deliberate self harm that is Brexit.. ..Brexit prioritised politics over preparation. Those pandemic logistical action plans were unaffordable.
" As a GP, commissioners would like me to prescribe & investigate less, refer fewer, but see more patients and diagnose more cancer. Not an easy maths puzzle.
"Public health has been decimated as a medical specialty over the past decade.
"knowing what we know about other coronaviridae, we should have put in place a policy of universal face masks on public transport/shops as far back as February.
"In those early weeks the silence from government was deafening.....
"We get what we vote for, and we voted for a craven cabinet of sycophants....."
We did, and the souls of the over sixty thousand who died because the interests of the rich prohibited the care of the people, must demand justice.
I have a dream that my.. children.. one day.. will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character
Martin Luther King