News OnTheWight always welcomes a Letter to the Editor to share with our readers – unsurprisingly they don’t always reflect the views of this publication. If you have something you’d like to share, get in touch and of course, your considered comments are welcome below.
This from Hans Bromwich, Cowes
Poacher turned Gamekeeper, Jeremy Hunt, has just branded the NHS a “rogue organisation” with an ingrained culture of cover-ups. He was speaking about the North East Ambulance Trust removing references to mistakes a paramedic had made, Jeremy Hunt said,
“This case is deeply concerning and appears to be another example of the toxic blame culture in the NHS which incentivises cover-ups and means the same mistakes are repeated time and again.”
More than a bit rich come from Hunt
Whilst one can whole heartedly agree with this view, it’s frankly more than a bit rich coming from the likes of Jeremy Hunt, who when he was Secretary of State for Health and Social Care between 2012 to 2018, held the respiratory pandemic exercise, Operation Cygnus, in 2016.
This exercise revealed the need for PPE, and that care-home residents would be a particularly vulnerable group several years before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
Emergency PPE stock levels rundown to save money
What action did Jeremy Hunt and Sir Simon Stevens oversee in the intervening time? The rundown of emergency PPE stock levels to save money, which resulted in numerous health care professionals inadequately protected.
Many caught Covid, and in some cases very sadly died.
After years of cuts in staffing and hospital bed provision, patients were desperately transferred, yes you guessed, into care-homes, often untested and infected, resulting in hundreds of premature care-home resident deaths.
Candidate as a future Prime Minister?
The first responsibility of any government is to protect its people, the idea that Jeremy Hunt considers himself a suitable candidate as a future Prime Minister simply defies belief, as John McEnroe would say,
“You cannot be serious!”
Image: NHS Confederation under CC BY 2.0
