After Easter, Junior Doctors in the NHS went on strike as part of an ongoing dispute concerning pay and working conditions. I appreciate that there will be diverse and passionate views about the strikes among my readers. Those views will reflect personal experience of the NHS, whether or not you personally know junior doctors. My… Continue reading How do we think Christianly about the junior doctors dispute?
Tag: NHS
Saving the NHS – one small step
One of the annual winter traditions in the UK is doom headlines about the NHS collapsing. This winter has been particularly grim with high levels of COVID, flu and other illnesses. Add into the mix key worker strikes including by nurses and ambulance drivers and it sounds like a lot of hospital A&E departments are… Continue reading Saving the NHS – one small step
The nurses strike or Matt Hancock on I’m a Celebrity? When you don’t have to choose between two ethical issues
I saw this tweet the other day. It’s a classical example of poor reasoning and poor ethical thinking. We sometimes refer to this as “Whataboutery.” A person expresses an opinion on a moral issue. They are then told that they should not be expressing views about that issue because issue x is far more egregious.… Continue reading The nurses strike or Matt Hancock on I’m a Celebrity? When you don’t have to choose between two ethical issues
The cost of living crisis: Poverty and politics
I want to return to our discussion about poverty and the cost of living crisis. Over the past week, a lot of people will have been getting updates from their energy companies to tell them that prices are increasing, potentially doubling the cost of heating and lighting your home. For some this will mean a… Continue reading The cost of living crisis: Poverty and politics
Why we should focus on NHS surge capacity not new restrictions
When we became alert to the new Omicron variant, I argued that our immediate focus should not be on attempting to impose new restrictions. This was not because I didn’t think that the new variant definitely wouldn’t be a significant problem for us. At that time, we had little data to go on at all.… Continue reading Why we should focus on NHS surge capacity not new restrictions
The urgent priority – avoiding future lockdowns
Anyone who has followed my thinking through COVID-19 will know that my consistent position throughout has been that the disease is a real and present danger that we need to respond to. I’ve had little time for so called COVID sceptics and anti-vaxxers. Therefore, I’ve agreed that measures have been necessary to respond to the… Continue reading The urgent priority – avoiding future lockdowns
First Impressions (Learning to see 2)
It started at about lunch time, initially I thought the squiggly line I was seeing was a loose hanging eyebrow or perhaps an eyelash caught in my eye/line of sight. When Sarah got home from work, we confirmed this was not the case. In any case, I’d not been able to do much ahead of… Continue reading First Impressions (Learning to see 2)
Coronavirus – did we set the wrong priorities?
I am continuing to think about how we have done so far during the coronavirus pandemic. As I said in an earlier post, one measure of this is how we are doing against the objectives the Government set out. However, we should also step back and ask whether those were the right objectives. One issue… Continue reading Coronavirus – did we set the wrong priorities?
The Care home scandal we cannot ignore
For a little while, I have been arguing that the one true scandal of the Coronavirus pandemic is that we allowed the virus to get into our care homes. The one place where you did not want the virus to run riot was also the one place we could have protected. I think that in… Continue reading The Care home scandal we cannot ignore
It is okay to disagree
In the past, I’ve challenged a number of the assumptions that lie behind some of the (in my opinion) wilder accusations thrown at the Government’s handling of Coronavirus strategy. This could make it sound like I believe all is rosy in the garden and that there are no problems. It might also suggest that I’m… Continue reading It is okay to disagree
Faithroots 