BMA Speaks Up
The British Medical Association is speaking up a bit more lately. Here are key recommendations quoted directly from their web page summarizing the fourth of five planned BMA reports about the UK’s handling of this pandemic. As of 7 July 2023:
We call on all UK governments to focus resources on promoting the COVID-19 vaccine amongst at-risk and under-vaccinated groups.
All UK governments should take steps to ensure that the staffing, tools, and facilities needed to address any future pandemic can be scaled up quickly if necessary.
All governments must reintroduce or re-emphasise mask wearing in health and social care settings, to protect patients and staff.
This came out just before our vigil where no one else in the hospital wore high quality face masks and only a few nurses wore baggy blues. So did new NHS guidance about ventilation and air filtration in health care facilities (May 2023). The NHS is too starved for resources for health care facilities to add HEPA filters. Nobody seems to be aware yet that windows are supposed to be opened more often and wider. It will take time, plus maybe a lot of jumping up and down and shouting, to get any of these actions taken.
Why is the BMA speaking up? Perhaps it is out of the goodness of their hearts. Perhaps it is because health care workers, including doctors, who have been debilitated by the virus are being cut off from support… and there are a lot of them… and our need for them is growing rather than shrinking. Regardless of what prompted the call to reintroduce mask wearing in health and social care settings, it is much needed. People seem to be spreading all sorts of things. Our health care people need a break, such as the rest of us no longer needing to go in with problems we could have avoided without excessive bother.
At over 7 million, waiting lists for health care in England are equivalent to more than 1 in 10 people in the entire country (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). The Institute for Fiscal Studies does not see any prospect for significant progress on reducing the waiting lists despite the Prime Minister’s declaration that he wants it to happen.
What we’re doing is not getting us anywhere good. We need to make some changes. The BMA is beginning to raise its voice a little more about what changes we should make. It’s high time. I’m glad they are doing it.
High time. I had to have some lab work done at local hospital last week, in Canada, mind you. I think mask wearing is optional still, but I wore mine and they are still wanting people to sit 6 ft apart in waiting room, so that's a positive. And it seemed pretty airy. Still, they'll have to ramp up quickly when covid returns. And I say, returns, as I haven't heard of any recent cases on the island here.
Too bad healthcare isn’t given more priority.