Originally posted by Chertsey Saint
As for the actual article, I’m interested in counter viewpoints to this, not a critique of the political persuasion. If we did this with every single link we’d never have any sort of debate on as all have some sort of political persuasion.
It’s a bullshit article, clearly written to prop up the govt position.
Let’s start at the begining. The very title is bollocks. It’s not facts, it’s a fudge of words, presenting different views and trying to state them as facts. The only truthful bit is that is solely about undermining the strike, shocking, coming from a Tory think tank.
Most healthcare reporting is deeply biased.
Love the inclusion of this line, as if to suggest what follows isn’t entirely biased.
Next, there is nothing wrong in considering the source of the ‘evidence’ when assessing the merits of the points being presented. Which are literally taught to consider this in GCSE History. So to turn around and say discount the source, whilst judging the contents is daft.
1. The maximum hours doctors can be made to work is actually decreasing.
This is misleading. A lot of concerns come from the undefined idea of 7 day NHS. Doctors are concerned that the NHS is being defunded, deregulated, destaffed, and sliced up with the profitable parts flogged off to Tory party donors. Often these companies have Tory politicians on their boards. Such coincidence.
2. This strike is over pay; not patient safety. Point one leads us nicely into point two; this strike is not about overworked doctors, and it’s not about patient safety. It is openly about pay.
Yeah, still bollocks. Point 1 does not stand up, and is either misguided or wilfully misleading. I know what I think, I’ll let you make your own decisions.
Worth also remembering, Hunt is a lying piece of shit. At every juncture, he has been caught lying through his teeth. The idea that Doctors are getting a pay rise is bullshit. the raise to basic pay is massively offset by the cuts to ‘banded’ pay. Banded pay makes up a significant part of a Junior Doctors pay, depending which rotation they are on at any given time. As I keep saying, Trainee GPs face a 30% pay cut. Against a back drop of Tube drivers, politicians and bankers (in publically owned and publically bailed out banks) getting raises, this is bullshit.
It’s a disgusting tactic to tar junior doctors, help massively help prop up NHS services - especially those at weekends - as money grabbers. They are not seeking massive raises, they are trying to protect themselves from cuts that will seriously impede their standard of living.
Which, given the massive level of skill, training, pressure and debt amassed to get to that point, I think doctors do deserve.
3. The NHS is the only healthcare most Brits can access.
Interesting spin on this. What does that do to a junior doctors negotiating position? Can they say well, mpose this contract I will work for another employer? Course they can’t. They have no freedom to take their labour elsewhere, seeking better conditions. If they did, no governemtn could consider behaving in the manner they have.
4. Patient safety is at risk
This is where the bias levels get hilarious. What this is essentially saying is that different studies have shown different things. Which is true of any subject that has ever been the basis of multiple studies. No shit Sherlock.
Going back to above, thinking you can decrease staff and funding, whilst increasing services and not think this is a risk to patient safety, you are clearly dizzy. Does the article make any mention of this? No, course not. Wonder why?
5. The British Medical Association is not a neutral body; it is a pressure group.
How exactly does this undermine the strike? They are a union, their stated purpose is to protect the interests of it’s members. This is a bullshit point of the highest order. Who in their right mind goes into a negotiation with someone neutral representing them?
Did Jeremy Hunt and the governement go in neutral? Or did they go in with their agenda, trying to get what they want? Meaningless tosh.
One final point: British patients are becoming increasingly aware that the NHS isn’t all it’s cracked up to be; some are starting to look look fondly across the channel to Europe, where patients are getting better treatment and experiencing better outcomes.
Again, support for the strikes is well above 50%. Over 60% in many cases.
Trying to equate some dissatisfaction with the NHS to the strikes is seriously misleading and entirely without merit. Where is any investigation into what is causing the dissatisfaction?
I’ll give you a hint. Under-funding and job cuts. The article doesn’t state it, but the article it links does. Typical tactic that seems to get employed a lot by this government.
Hospitals are now so short-staffed and underequipped that people are also dying needlessly because of a chronic lack of investment. The verdict, from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), will make embarrassing reading for David Cameron who denied the cash-strapped NHS is heading for its worst winter crisis.
…
Staff are too rushed to improve levels of care that have in many areas fallen below countries such as Turkey, Portugal and Poland. Almost 75,000 more doctors and nurses are needed to match standards in similar countries the OECD said in its annual Health at a Glance study comparing the quality of healthcare across 34 countries.
How does hammering Doctors, Junior or otherwise help this? How does making it significantly harder for nurses to train and qualify help any of this?
The NHS is getting worse, but is almost entirely the making of this government. There’s also social issues in there as well, drinking, obesity and old-age which are putting unprecedented levels of strain on the NHS.
None of this is the fault of Junior Doctors. Again, even trying to link the two is intellectually dishonest in the extreme. And yeah, that article is complete bollocks.
