Give me strength, the NHS is on its knees and Therese Coffey issues this.....

[DevaleraSpawnOfSatan]

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/09/15/therese-coffey-tells-nhs-staff-stop-using-oxford-comma/

😡😡

She's got a bunch of papers

www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Therese-A-Coffey-82428216

Not surprised she didn't stick with it, doing reactions using hydrogen sulfide sounds unpleasant.

Thérèse Coffey sounds like Jacob Rees-Mogg Mark II… eeek.

The UK has too few doctors, too few nurses, too few hospitals, too few hospital beds, and too few social care facilities.

Which part of the above sentence should the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care be most concerned about?

I can't read the article but I love the Oxford comma. Why on earth would she want to get rid of that? I'd have some sympathy if she wasted her time and resources on asking people to communicate in a manner that's more clear but to waste time and resources asking them to be less clear?

The mind boggles.

Another medical professional who had to look up what an Oxford comma was... I only recently learned what a semi-colon was for from my 10 year old's homework

Nice to know her priorities.

Right, this is being blown out of all proportion by people with an axe to grind.

I am a civil servant, when a new Minister is appointed we receive guidance on how the line their briefing prepared etc. all
Involving things like this. Ministers of all colours do this. It will have been shared with her last department too. It's been leaked to cause political damage which is shameful and against the Civil Service Code.

Conscious of my typos, sorry.

An Oxford comma is a comma before 'and'? Every day's a shool day. I was always taught just don't, but surely there's no need issue instructions.

On the subject I'm never sure if a comma belongs before 'but'?

She's not telling NHS staff to not use the Oxford comma. She's instructing her new Dept (DHSC) on how she wants things to run including writing styles. This is very normal for govt departments, we get this kind of stuff all the time.

I’m working on a labour ward today where we have got 5 midwives instead of 12. Honestly this stupid shit isn’t even on our radar.

I'm also a civil servant- all new SoS and ministers do this.
It saves a lot of time and aggravation if they are clear what they want.
No point winding them up unnecessarily.
The instructions also usually contain more substantive things eg some ministers will prefer data to be presented in graphs and charts with minimal text. Others like more written text and explanation
As they say - nothing to see here

Can anyone think of any organisation the size and diversity of the DoHaSC in which the boss would try to prescribe it's employee's working practice to such a degree?

Even a new McDonald's CEO would expect his staff to have more independence and flexibility than that.

It just suggests such a ridiculous approach to management.

I am a civil servant, when a new Minister is appointed we receive guidance on how the line their briefing prepared etc. all Involving things like this. Ministers of all colours do this. It will have been shared with her last department too.

See, I get that, I just can't understand anyone effective thinking such minor details are worth proscribing. I thought it was nuts when JRM did it- it just gets people's back up.

Nor is it required to be on your radar

@Iamuhtredsonofuhtred it's really not aimed at you
I'm no fan of this govt, this pm or her Cabinet, but I agree with a pp who says it's been leaked to case trouble when it's really no big deal

Theresa Coffey's head would explode if she saw the digital clinical records in the ambulance trust I work for.

Regardless of what you type, the system turns the first letter of every word into a capital. Drives me frickin' bonkers, and I'm no grammar pedent.

WTAF did I just read?!!

Today the Chancellor has also announced they’re considering removing the caps on banker bonuses.

Liz can’t give a speech to save her life and now we have these 2 idiots who also have the comms skills of a brick.

I'll never thank Martin Amis for writing such unreadable and Unlikeable drivel. JKR on the other hand, is fabulous. As is an Oxford comma.

She's bikeshedding!

I could help being concerned at the pharmacy I visited today where there was a sign saying they couldn’t take any medicine for disposal ‘As our bins our all full’(!)

One of the examples given is an MP asking for a particular style when having their correspondence typed. That’s perfectly acceptable and expected!

As an HCA I'm not sure the Oxford comma plays a huuuge part in my shift...

However, trying to source essential unavailable equipment that keeps patients alive and well does.

The irony.

I’ve worked in the corporate sector for over 20 years as will many others on this thread. I’ve been a junior and eventually exec manager.

Never have I been given, or have I issued, statements like this. Why? Because it makes precisely ZERO difference to outcomes which for
most businesses is making money. For the NHS it should be better patient experience and outcomes. How does having any civil servant spend even a small amount of time tailoring comms support that and demonstrate ‘best value’ of public money?

If either Thérèse Coffey or Jacob Rees-Smug were my MP (it is Kemi Badenoch instead, and she is not great either) then I would be very tempted to write to them using as many Oxford commas and "unacceptables" (hated by Rees-Smug) as I could shoehorn in. 🤣

Seriously though, I had to look up Oxford comma too despite being a bit of a spelling and grammar pedant. I've never used it because I was always taught that no comma was needed before the "and" at the last item on a list. We didn't learn lots of grammar rules in our school, so that was one of the few.