STRIKING OUT OUR VIEW

AT the time of writing, up to 60,000 junior doctors across the UK are striking for four days, delaying everything from routine appointments to vital cancer treatment.

Despite the obvious risks to health however, one poll found that 74 per cent of the British public supported the strike. Which begs the question, just how broken is the NHS that we support lives being put in danger ‐ by the very people who have taken an oath to do no harm ‐ to fix it?

It had always generally been accepted that doctors (par‐ticularly at the junior end) are overworked and underpaid. But the heavy weight that the pandemic put on those at the front line coupled with the resulting treatment back‐log and a cost of living crisis seem to have equalled a work environment for doctors that we can no longer accept.

Where did it all go so wrong though? Launched an as‐tonishing 75 years ago, the NHS brought universal health care to a population who, until then, may simply have died from a simple infection or injury because they could not afford to be treated.

The envy of the world for many years, the NHS also in‐spired many other great nations to roll out their own equivalents. We now regard free healthcare as one of the main marks of a civilised country.

Like anything though, a great concept only stays great if it moves with the times. And it’s fair to say that relying on a habitually underpaid, overworked workforce to simply put up and shut up forever is not a long term strategy.

Equally, with an ever growing population how long can we expect the NHS to roll on for without massive change before more wheels start to come off?

Norajohnson Breakingviews

A RECENT report moves the spotlight on to the fire and rescue services just after the Met was found guilty as charged of institu‐tional racism, misogyny and homophobia in a similarly condemnatory report that showed public confidence in the force at rock bottom.

According to this latest scathing review, there may be ‘predators’ like Wayne Couzens lurking in the fire service’s shad‐ows as the toxic culture uncovered was ‘just the tip of the iceberg’. Examples of this ‘hotbed of racism, misogyny and ho‐mophobia’ included firefighters acting out a rape, expecting women to make tea and viewing racist language as ‘having a laugh’.

A ‘hotbed of racism, misogyny and ho‐mophobia’: seriously? Then we read that ‘some’ examples of unacceptable conduct were found in only 11 of the 44 fire ser‐vices. But, we are assured, this ‘could be’ the ‘tip of an iceberg’. So, no evidence was found in 33 out 44 services.

How on earth is that rampant? More likely it ‘could be’ a report determined to trash the reputation of the entire fire ser‐vice. And yet another lesson in how to de‐