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.

Your personal character assassination on her appearance and habits have no bearing on her ability to do the job and your prejudices are showing. Not a good look OP.

Indeed. People are allowed their personal views as long as they don't try to impose them on others.

This

Not concerned what she looks like, her voting record doesn't align with my views personally and she seemed a shoe in for the job she wanted as she's liz' closest friend. A lot of the choices seem similarly illogical however will wait and see what she goes on to do rather than judging already.

Best tell that to my what you would call obese, oncologist and nursing team who without I wouldn't be here and got through the last few years.

Guess you haven't heard of unhealthy slimmer people then either. 🙄

I know this is ignorant and based on largely unfounded prejudices but I did find it hard when I was sectioned for an ED when I was younger having an obese support worker. I was terrified if I listened to them and what they were saying I should do I would also end up obese, which of course whilst not the worst thing in the world but to someone grappling with a potentially fatal eating disorder does seem like the end of the world whilst they're in that space. Other than that can't say I've ever overly noticed or been perturbed by a HCPs weight.

This.

Obesity is irrelevant. Many many health care professionals are obese (sometimes as a result of their shift patterns). You can be obese and completely understand the health risks, and an understanding of the causes of obesity. Most if not all obese people do I’m sure.

The abortion views is more concerning to me. My initial thought was that she would quite likely accept her views are a minority and keep her personal views separate from her work. But I’m vegetarian (and quite a relaxed one at that, not a passionate animal rights activist) and I could never accept a role as minister for food and agriculture, it would be absurd.

You keep your reasonable and tolerant opinions to yourself please!

On second thoughts, I hope this is a small enough part of the health service that her personal views are not an issue. We need someone to sort out the NHS and social care, desperately, so I’ll wait and see how she does.

People can understand health issues without being perfect physical specimens themselves. She might have alot of insight about why people do unhealthy things and the sort of support they need.

I understand I should eat healthily but I just had a mince pie for breakfast, it means I'm human. I don't smoke, do drugs or drink alcohol but my failing in relation to sugar means I can grasp why people have problems with addictions.

@Sarahconnor1 - this is an interesting one because the Nursing and Midwifery Council future nurse standards of proficiency upon which nurse education is based state that nurses must be “role models” and promote healthy behaviours, be fit and healthy enough to fulfil the role etc. and you can lose your NMC registration if you are not of “good health and character” and by extension, if you are obese to the point of being limited in how far you can walk for example, that could be considered poor health. As a nurse myself, I’m in two minds about it - on the one hand, I would struggle for example to attend an exercise class if the instructor was obese, but on the other, it’s the care the nurse provides which is most important.

in Scotland, our (former) chief nurse was obese until she got the chief nurse post. She then dramatically lost weight and said that she couldn’t stand in front of people and talk about the obesity epidemic when she was obese herself. Interesting now that she’s left that post, she’s put on a lot of weight again. Which to me shows just how hard it can be to maintain a healthy weight.

it’s a really interesting discussion!

When DD was in hospital, a number of the clinical staff clearly had unhealthy BMIs. They still provided excellent care.

I know that binge drinking isn’t good for me. I still occasionally do it because life isn’t all about living like a puritan.

She’s not a medical doctor, she’s got a PhD in Chemistry. The whole ‘doctors should be healthy’ BS doesn’t apply, and it has got little to do with reality. Many doctors and people working in the NHS lead very unhealthy lifestyles.

You're a doctor? A doctor with terrible SPAG and more importantly, attention to detail (can't even get Coffey's name right)...

She's a politician. Her personal beliefs don't decide policies. Her physical appearance doesn't reflect her competence in a particular area.

I do find the appearance of some of our politicians to be embarrassing - scruffy, unkempt, no pride in their appearance. I know I’ll be shot down for that but I don’t care, I like my politicians to both look and act like professionals.

I always suspected, but now I know that reality is a cosmic joke.
Therese Coffey - health secretary?!!! My sides are splitting.

I don’t care about her weight or looks. I care about her approach to the NHS and am anticipating moves to further privatise it. This is the most hardline, far right, government I’ve ever seen - so hardline that even Priti Patel had to stand down (let that sink in for a moment). I think we’re in for an absolute shit show, dismantling of rights, taxation that will benefit the rich, and an absolute lack of interest or care about anyone further down the food chain. The only consolation is that Truss is unlikely to last long enough to do much further damage.

I think it’s very naive to think that personal beliefs influence policy. Politicians are elected on the basis of their beliefs. They choose to stand for election in order to influence policy and set the direction of the UK.

Tbh all this nonsense about Therese Coffey’s weight has depressed the shit out of me. We are facing serious challenges as a nation and people use their head space to worry about how much the health secretary weighs (I know, I know, I contributed to this thread).

There are some excellent discussions on mumsnet about what needs to be done on energy prices, on taxation on inflation. Then we have the threads basically populated with insults, “omg Liz Truss is sooooo thick, Therese Coffey is sooo fat.”

I am terrified about our new health secretary. And deputy PM. She is not a nice person - and yes I have met her on a number of occasions. I am quite heartbroken at the state of the whole new cabinet. As women you would think we should be celebrating, but frankly, as women, we are now f*cked.

I said "decide". She won't be allowed to just do whatever she wants. She may want to ban abortion, but that won't happen.

Genuine question but why ‘terrified’? What do you think is going to happen?

She doesn’t have to nice she has to be effective and if she’s not then happy to see the back of her. I’m sorry you had a bad experience with her though.