Labour peer and IVF pioneer Lord Winston has quit the British Medical Association after junior doctors announced strikes this month. He was a member for more than 60 years…
Winston slammed BMA’s leaders over “providing a poor example” to aspiring medics, adding:
“I feel very strongly that this isn’t the time to be striking. I think that the country is really struggling in all sorts of ways, people are struggling in all sorts of ways. Strike action completely ignores the vulnerability of people in front of you. It’s important that doctors consider their own responsibility much more seriously.”
Streeting called the strikes “unfair and unnecessary” as junior doctors demand a 29% pay rise despite already receiving a 22% increase. Meanwhile, Unite has voted to “re-examine” its relationship with Labour and has suspended Angela Rayner’s membership. The historic marriage between Labour and the unions is fast becoming a bitter break-up…
Speaking on Times Radio, former Home Secretary David Blunkett spoke about overdiagnosis of mental problems:
“Let’s distinguish those who are really severely mentally ill, diagnosed with things that require prolonged medical and diagnostic treatment. My wife and I talk about this a lot, because she’s a retired GP, about the fact that you can be sad without being ill. You can be momentarily depressed because your boyfriend or girlfriend’s just thrown you and you’re not mentally ill. You can even have mild issues, which can be dealt with with the right kind of support, but it doesn’t make you mentally ill. So we’ve got a real task, I think, to get the psychology, if you like, of this over. But there are things where you definitely need medical intervention, and there are other things where you need good friends, you need good connectivity, and you need a job.”