Sir, – You would think that during the current Covid-19 crisis, doctors are at a premium and are being snapped up with open arms by the NHS. Well think again.
I am a qualified GP but I have spent the past six years working in emergency medicine in the NHS. Since mid-January I have been working as a civilian doctor for the Ministry of Defence.
When I saw and read about the strain that the NHS was under, I felt it was my duty as a UK and NHS-trained doctor to step forward and offer my services.
You would think this would be fairly easy.
The GMC has been contacting doctors who gave up their registration in the past three years and they are being granted temporary registration to volunteer.
However there is nothing directing registered doctors on how to volunteer.
Similarly the British Medical Association, the trade union representing doctors, have been of no help either.
When I asked about this subject I was sent links to their generic career advice and advertised jobs pages.
Google searches, posting on LinkedIn and even direct approaches to hospitals, have all been equally fruitless.
I must say I am at a total loss as to how I go about volunteering to work in the NHS in this time of crisis.
Why is it so difficult?
Maybe I need to take out a front page advert: GP and emergency medicine doctor seeks Covid-19 job!
Anthony Matheson.
5 Birchwood Way,
Dumfries.
Private healthcare creeping in the back door
Sir, – Yesterday’s public update by our first minister, chief medical officer and Cabinet secretary for health, on Covid-19, was highly enlightening in a few areas, in particular the testing strategy.
My understanding previously was that the testing strategy adopted by Germany and South Korea would have been the correct strategy, provided we had the capacity to perform these tests and implemented them at the early stages in the January timeframe.
As a country we did not have this capacity and hence missed the window of opportunity
The clinical director further explained the actions required by us from 7.30pm till nearly 8.00pm, just prior to our ‘Clap for Vital People’.
In the UK, the NHS have over the last several years been subject to two ideological controls, the first harks back to the 2008 financial crash, and was accelerated from 2010 and the UK Government’s austerity project, by Messrs Cameron and Osborne.
The second is the embedded Conservative belief that government should be small and, to that end, health care ‘could’ be moved to the private rector rather than the government.
The ideology is based on the theory that if you have to pay you will only pay for what you can and observe good practices to avoid having to pay for healthcare.
This doesn’t seem to have worked in its main proponent, the USA.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s announcement that the UK Government is going to increase testing (in England) by engaging with commercial companies like Amazon and Boots in the future to be capable of supplying test kits is more than concerning.
It appeared that he was setting up Amazon and Boots as the suppliers of choice to the UK population.
For Covid-19 as a short term expedient, this may be acceptable, but is it the thin end of the wedge?
Will we as a nation be told five to 10 years in the future that before we attend a doctor’s surgery we should previously have taken the test for HxxNyy offered by Boots or Amazon.
This is private healthcare creeping in by the back door.
Alistair Ballantyne.
Birkhill,
Angus.
Comparing like for like is vital
Sir, – We are told every day how many people have died of the coronavirus in the previous 24 hours.
I and others I have spoken to are suspicious that the numbers are inflated by many who would have died of other causes in any case.
A simple comparison would be an analysis of the numbers who died of all causes in the past 24 hours, benchmarked against the same statistic for 2019.
I suspect that the numerical difference between the two years will be a good deal less than the number attributed to the virus over the same 24-hour period.
The devil may indeed be in the detail.
Brian Anderson.
54 Cloanden Place,
Kirkcaldy.
A modicum of common sense
Sir, – Watching the BBC news and a minister just admitted he had made the decision to test patients in hospital first.
I maybe a little over the hill but surely common sense says if you have limited tests the care workers and emergency service providers come first so they can then help the patients.
When, I ask , can we be served by politicians with a modicum of common sense and knowledge of how the plebiscite try to live their life.
David Lowes.
28 Rossie Avenue,
Montrose.
Selfishness led to charging
Sir, – With reference to the letter (Axe all hospital parking charges, Courier, April 2), the reason car parking charges were implemented was that residents in Dundee and elsewhere were using free parking facilities at Ninewells, and taking the bus into town, thus getting a free parking space whilst at work.
That in turn led to visitors, patients and staff attending Ninewells being unable to park for appointments as these cars were obviously there all day.
Surely in these days of modern technology, a method of imprinting a barcode or similar into the appointment letter could be implemented, thus allowing visitors a free car space.
It is totally wrong that health problems should be penalised but until thoughtless, selfish drivers are stopped, parking charges would appear to be the only solution.
Fiona McMillan.
6 Ethiebeaton Terrace,
Monifieth.
Push into even longer grass
Sir, – On April Fools’ Day it was announced that the Glasgow COP26 climate conference has been postponed. I vote that it be deferred till 2050 so they can compare their predictions to real data.
Geoff Moore.
Alness,
Highland.
