To think the new health secretary should spend a day at an abortion clinic ?

[Goldencup]

So apart from the fact that she is clearly clinically obese and smokes cigars ! Our new health secretary is also an anti abortionist, being a practicing Catholic. I was also raised as a Catholic to be believe abortion was wrong, but becoming a doctor and a mother has changed my mind 360 (or 180) on this. The pivitol moment for me was attending TOP lists as a medical student and talking to the women, realising that it is nearly always the least worst choice of a variety of pretty dire options. If this women (Coffe) is to stand in judgment on thousands of women than perhaps she should dip her toe into the reality. BTW I would also advocate a 12 hr shift on her feet on as an HCA on the dementia wards.

Hopefully she will be doing tours of the whole health system. Presumably she has some sort of interest in it?! Or do they just pick names out of a hat?

I am afraid I have to start work now. I knew I shouldn't have mentioned her weight as not the point of the thread and everyone has predictably jumped on it. Just to answer that last post, clients have to demonstrate sustained life style changes before they are considered for barbaric surgery for this very reason. However as I say I do need to go work now, been an interesting discussion, definitely food for thought 😉and obviously time will tell.

She is Truss' best friend and closest advisor.

I'm sure she got the job entirely on her own merits and years of health sector experience though....

I'm not sure what any of the previous health ministers have done - kept their heads down mainly imv.
Let's hope she's better seems unlikely

Bariatric not barbaric obvs- spell check

The next time someone says “at least the Tories know what a woman is” I am going to remind them about the health secretary’s views on women’s health.

Yeah quite possibly, I’m just making the point that BMI is not the most important qualifying factor in appointing a health secretary. Whether she is competent of not is more important, she may be awful but essentially thats the thing I would be more concerned about.

Her views on abortion don’t align with my own but shes clear on the fact the law isn’t changing and as long as she doesn’t start campaigning for it to I can park that as a concern.

On not having health experience, I take your point but Kate Bingham didn’t either and she did a fabulous job.

If you knew you shouldn't have mentioned her weight then why did you? Shows a distinct lack of judgement for a doctor! I'm not sure that someone with such a lack of judgement should be a doctor really 🤷‍♀️.
Also, just to confirm, it is 180 degrees not 360.
Everything else I actually agree with you.

She is awful in every way. There is not a single aspect of the DWP that improved under her tenure. However I doubt changes to abortion law are even on her agenda. At the moment she needs to visit A&E's , talk to GPs and see for herself how broken the NHS is. She will not, she will talk to consultants about how much can be done by the private sector.

The links between obesity, cancer and dementia has become clear in the last 10-15 yrs. Science is funny like that it makes progress and discovers new things.

You must have led a sheltered life - have you never seen overweight doctors, nurses etc.? Or health professionals who (shock, horror) smoked?

Considering she's her 'best mate', she's been set up for a lot of body criticism given her role. Not sure I'd do that to mine.
Personally, she may have more of an idea about health given her weight but if she's not been successful in gaining control of her own health issues are we supposed to believe she's going to help others with their issues?
I also think have someone against abortion working in the top job is not going help women's health rights. I don't think too many vegans would make effective agriculture ministers so why would this be different?

I agree.

How can you tell everyone else to be healthy when you're obese?!

How are you feeling about others appointed into pists they are not particularly versed in the way some of us would want them to be?

Or is just the particular woman you would like to take shots at?

With politicians their voting record is an issue. She doesn't need to fully understand health, she won't be advising anyone on how to manage conditions.
Now our visitor from 1877 on the other hand will probably take us back to coal mines.

As much as I’d like population health overall to be tackled it shouldn’t become personal

How she looks is not relevant and I agree with pp that overweight middle aged with short hair is always more ridiculed

We should do better as many of us are middle aged and would prefer to work in professional settings without the same

Oh God no. Those poor women (and girls) are suffering enough.

It’s fine to condemn Catholic beliefs, but keep your mouth shut if there’s anything in Islam you find offensive.

I'm not being goady, but don't we actually want and need experts in their field determining policy etc?

Hmmm…some women (not all) who are very slim and well-groomed may be focusing more on themselves and their appearance than on other people. Fine for some careers but not politics imo. Give me someone who doesn’t care what they look like because they are too interested in what’s going on around them.

Yes, that's why there are experts within Whitehall departments.

You're not going to find someone who is simultaneously expert as nurse, midwife, surgeon, physician, physio, porter, admin clerk, health economist, estates manager, procurement manager, dentist, carehome manager, safeguarding lead, OT, domiciliary carer etc etc etc

So instead you appoint people who are believed to be most capable of handling complexity, managing experts and generally being policy-capable

Should we start by firing all the obese doctors , nurses and paramedics ?

She is grim, I agree OP. I also think it’s a bit rich having someone who is obese and smokes as the health secretary, she’s far from a picture of health but as others said it’s as tone deaf as a millionaire Chancellor, there’s clearly form for this from these people.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them…

How can you tell everyone else to be healthy when you're obese?!

I don't think that is actually what her job is!!!

Stop bullshitting about being a doctor

As long as she supports the right of women to access safe abortion, her personal attitudes shouldn't be relevant. I stress shouldn't. The UK is a much more progressive country than the US in many ways, and as long as we don't let religious beliefs get in the way of common sense we will stay that way.

To me it is simple- the minister should support the policy. If they dissent, that is their choice, but then they should be appointed to another post if at all.

You would not have a Defence Secretary who did not believe in the UK keeping nuclear weapons, for example.