Boris Johnson refuses to look at photo of child on hospital floor

[Cam77]

Johnson repeatedly refusing to look at picture of a four year old child on a hospital floor when confronted by an ITV reporter. After refusing to so much as glance at the photo, he then proceeds to pocket the reporters phone(!?) while mouthing empty platitudes. Here’s a link,but I’m sure you’ll see it on the news anyway..
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-nhs-leeds-hospital-floor-jack-williment-phone-photo-a9239041.html
Was he having a bad day? Nah, it’s Johnson to a T: a privileged, uncaring, unashamed bullshitter, out for number one. Does this man represent our country?

@hazeyjane honestly, I'm not supporting the shocking lack of resources in the health service, nor am I saying in any way that insufficient beds is acceptable. I won't be voting for the Tories on Thursday.

I'm just questioning the mentality of someone who takes a photo of a sick child on the floor of a hospital, does an interview with the local rag, then sells the photo to a national tabloid.

To be honest, I'm also questioning the legitimacy of it all when the mother says, "I'm now going to vote Labour" on the weekend of a general election.

@EveryFlightBeginsWithAFall I'm still waiting for a source to back up your claims. All I'm hearing is sarcasm, so I'm guessing that you can't.

I can tell you from experience doing things "the right way" does fuck all.

When the HA threatened DH with destroying his mobility scooter i immediately had interest from Radio 5 Live who wanted to do a story on it.

I said i would give the HA a chance (one of many ive given them for dfferent things) It took the HA three weeks to acknowledge the complaint and this was the run up to Christmas and caused a huge amount of stress. In the latter part of those weeks i did go back to Five Live but they were no longer interested. Because the media moves on. I learnt a valuable lesson. You take the chance when its presented to you.

Maybe the mother of this child learnt that the hard way too.

@HelenDove if this was fake why did conservative party panic & send Hancock straight away AND he apologised & made a statement accordingly

Allison Pearson sounds unhinged.

The whole story of the little boy on the floor was first printed in the Yorkshire Evening Post and verified with the senior hospital management. It was solid local journalism.

I can well believe the paediatric assessment unit isn’t big enough. From the reports it had fewer beds than my local one and should probably have far more as a major city hospital.

When I was in recently with my daughter, we had a bed but others were on chairs waiting to be seen. I can easily see how a poorly but not critical child could be moved from bed to chair if the wards were full. Our experience of the assessment unit was pretty crap so I’m not surprised by the picture. I think they ideally want you out within 24 hours so they are not designed in the same way as wards (or at least my one wasn’t). The whole set-up wasn’t conducive to little ones sleeping. One night we had a cot, the other not so I had to cuddle my baby to sleep on the bed which wasn’t really that safe as I was worried I’d fall asleep and drop her. One small ward can’t really meet the needs of babies, toddlers, older children and teenagers without everyone being driven slowly insane. I found it more stressful than post natal and I never thought I’d say that.

I don’t think some of the problems can be totally attributed to cuts (Although that would contribute). Some of them we’re poor design and not thinking through the different needs of all paediatric patients.

Now, I could have taken pictures of my daughter looking poorly but funnily enough it wasn’t really on my mind as I was just worried sick about her. It does feel like this poor boy is now being used as a political football and the parents do have to take some responsibility for that as it is an invasion of his privacy to me.

Maybe the mother of this child learnt that the hard way too
But ran to the papers.

The arguments about whether she should have taken a photo put me in mind of this because i saw the same argument being used in this case.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/brutality-bedroom-tax-exposed-disgraceful-6302099

And here is the thread where the same argument was used.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2454607-The-bedroom-tax?pg=1

i knew i remembered that right because i commented on that thread.

This case made me actually cry.

@mumwon You have taken my posts completely out of context. I NEVER said this was faked.

The bots posting that they know the nursing sister on that ward and she said this would never happen are whats faked. Please read the thread. I copied and pasted those from Twitter because they say the same as the screenshot from fb upthread. THATS what im trying to say.

Why are you linking to a thread fom 2015?

IM also the one who posted the article from the Guardian revealing the false accusations that a Labour activist was supossed to have thrown a punch They didnt

Didnt stop Kunessberg and Peston tweeting that they did though.

Here we go again

Ive linked a thread from 2015 because THEY WERE ALSO CRITICIZED FOR TAKING A PHOTO AND GOING TO THE PAPERS.

i thought id explained that well enough in the same post.

I have a photographic memory. Sometimes a curse Sometimes a blessing.

How are you voting @ginghambox Same as previously?

Conservative. As you very well know.

Well @ginghambox. If you hadnt criticized the mother taking a photo and going to the papers i wouldnt have clicked and thought "hang on we have been here before" And i woudnt have linked the 2015 bedroom tax case. Because the posts on here criticizing the mum of that child is what reminded me of the parallels. They got criticized too in the same way

"They shouldn't have gone to the papers" is a very convenient argument to suppress criticism of the governing political party of the day.

We're not talking about a spat about school dinners here. We are talking about whether hospital provision for children is adequate. If parents aren't allowed to contact the media, how will we in the wider world find out about it before we experience it ourselves?

YY Jamie

I haven't read the whole thread, but having looked at the video Bojo looks knackered. I don't think he pocketed the phone deliberately, he was just distracted and wasn't thinking straight. He didn't handle it well, but that doesn't make him a monster.

Bojo is in his 50s, so maybe he struggles to see such things without reading glasses, and doesn't like wearing them in public (vanity) or didn't have a pair with him.

I hate it when someone thrusts a phone at me and says "Here, you must look at this!" I just think "Why? It's a tiny digital image not worth looking at." I usually glance at it out of politeness, and feign an interest so as not to hurt somone's feelings, but it's not the same as looking at proper photos. If the journalist had printed off a decent sized copy and handed it to Bojo, the reaction would probably have been very different, as it would have been much easier to see.

Also, it must get tiresome being held directly accountable for everything wrong with the country, as though you are personally to blame for it all. People seem to think the PM should apologise for every single thing that goes wrong... NHS failures, released criminals re-offending, schools failing, housing shortages, etc, etc. The PM cannot possibly micromanage every decison and aspect of government alone and is not all powerful nor omnipresent. Any PM is just a (flawed) human being, not God.

I wish Rory Stewart had won the leadership contest, he seemed to have more integrity than many MPs, but alas it was not to be. Bojo is not ideal, but if the tories win a majority I hope he will put a decent team together to get the country out of this awful limbo. I have no faith in Comrad Corbin and his mission to take us back to the 70s. I lived through them - they were dire.

We’ve been to this a&e with my son multiple times unfortunately and have been put in a tiny office for hours whilst waiting for a bed on the cat unit. Door shut, no emergency buzzer, no bed obviously, no body to keep an eye on my 9 month old hypoglycaemic son. Luckily I had the pram with me so no floor for him, I wouldn't of been able to hold him for 5 hours+ as I had to keep syringing juice in his mouth and was on my own after a 13 hour shift at another hospital. My son went into severe hypoglycaemia hours after and we were very lucky he suffered no known lasting damage from the lack of treatment. He was admitted for over a week yet we were pushed aside and ignored when they could of stopped it getting so dire, they had a major trauma so of course I do not blame the staff on that shift but I blame the lack of beds and the lack of staff to go round every child that needed it. We've had to have him assessed by SALT numerous times over the years due to that single day, he's very behind in most things for his age but they can't say if that is why or not and we do not want to do any scans unless they are sure it's needed. Now we have an emergency regime and open access to the cat unit so it will never be that bad again thankfully.

I can't say enough how busy that a&e is all the time. We've been in summer due to surgical complications and waited 9 hours to see the on call paediatric urologist and had to wait there the whole time and the whole time it was rammed. Staff had to ask people to go home and leave one parent with the child so every kid could have a seat. People are always sat on the floor waiting to be triaged. It's tiny when you think how many children have that hospital as the local one, max 25 seats. Then you add in the fact it's also used for major traumas from even further afield.

Multiple schools in Leeds have closed due to norovirus so it does not surprise me one tiny bit there was nowhere other than the floor for that poor boy to lay down.

I know this hasn't answered the post but seeing people blaming the mother is awful. The hospital have admitted themselves they took a bed from that child and didn't give him another until he reached cat unit.

Ponderland Some of the people on this thread seem to think women grow two extra pairs of hands on becoming a mother

I fully support the NHS. But it will always be a moneypit.

Only as long as the Tories keep allowing private companies to win contracts. I was taken to hospital by an NHS branded private ambulance at the end of April, my A&E treatment was provided by NHS employees as was my ward stay. The two treatments I had post discharge were both provided by private companies. Take the profit out of it and it will fluorish.

Allison Pearson is now trending on Twitter,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,oh dear