Fantastic news from labour 2miilion extra appointments

[Tallerandtall]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn4z4vw3p1do

isn’t this what we wanted!?
so let’s see how other things progress and stop moaning.
it is good progress.

but I bet the Tories and réformatics can’t help but moan.

I think there’s some confusion here as the term ‘military uniform’ really doesn’t exist….in the military.
With my limited knowledge of friends in the army and navy and my sons all having done CCF ( all NCOs )
As far as I’m aware, and I’ve posted basic google stuff, there’s
dress uniform which is medals and stuff
and fatigues which is daily combat / not necessarily in a combat area though just everyday wear.
Neither are called military uniform but to the general, non military, public seem to be known as such.

The images of Starmer in fatigues are old photos one of which is on Salisbury plain so not a combat area.
Here’s what was in the papers

Completely agree - a quick look at the BMA website indicates there were 15 strike days for resident doctors in the comapritive period. Over 5 months, 15 days is near as damn it 10% more days working. A further google indicates that there are around 134 million outpatient appointments a year. That's around 11 million a month, 54 million over a 5 month period. 4% more appointments with 10% more working days sounds like something that needs serious management intervention, not something to claim as a success. Though it does at least support the fact that NHS productivity continues to decline...

Well that’s not so much fatigues as a camouflage fabric coat - look at his legs. I think the public usually take ‘military uniform’ to mean dress uniform, as I said. And in none of those is he ‘wearing military uniform while announcing sending British troops to Ukraine’. So really it backs up my point about the previous poster’s nonsense.

what he’s wearing has clearly come from the standard issue fatigues for the armed forces.
He is not wearing, from what I can see, any form of insignia identifying belonging to a Unit or anything else.
So it’s the base uniform. Soldiers sew on or Velcro on various insignia identification etc badges after they are issued the standard uniform.

No, he hasn’t bothered with the trousers. They probably just gave him the top half to wear for his visit and photo shoot. ( perhaps he didn’t want to get his kit off in front of others )
I really don’t see the big deal with this
Hes on a visit, puts on fatigues and has a look around….what’s wrong with that.

In terms of what he’s wearing whilst announcing sending troops for Ukraine. I have no idea what he was wearing. Perhaps the poster who said that could come back to confirm. All the images in the paper of him in military fatigues predate the announcement

Exactly my point.

Agree
I think it would be insensitive to don any military gear in particular in this situation
Churchill did, of course, but then he had trained at Sandhurst and we were at war.

Some politicians do some don’t….some people think it’s wrong, some don’t.
I really think we’ve got more to worry about than what someone wears.

Perhaps the pp has seen something we haven’t 🤷‍♀️

He ceratinly has more to worry about than what he's wearing ;)

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/keir-starmer-boris-johnson-popularity-poll-b2700776.html

And yet a poll the other day had him as most preferred as PM. He may be unpopular but everyone else is even more unpopular at the moment. Plus he doesn’t really need to worry about that for 4 years anyway.

Improving hospital discharge is one of the things that will help free the whole system up

There are enough unsafe discharges as it is.

This news article is from today.
I wonder when the results were published

Is this why we’ve had this nhs stuff announced. To get the public behind him. Or would Labour be that bothered since there’s a few years to go yet ?

It was junior doctors striking wasn't it? Not all appointments are with junior doctors so it might be 10% of junior doctors but it won't be 10% of NHS appointments. You are leaving out appointments with Consultants, nurses, phlebotomists, radiographers, midwives, audiologists and many more.

Starmer looks quite sexy in those fatigues (photo on the right)

misses the point of the thread but hey no need to lighten the mood a bit today

This
so other staff including consultants drafted in from other departments to take over

I think it’s wise to assume the roles of these doctors, making up 50% of all nhs doctors across all disciplines, weren’t just left unattended.

Also not all junior doctors did strike. I know DIL didn't, she worked extra hours.

I think he’s pouting 🤣

I'll start celebrating when I see it having a positive impact on my life. Within the last couple of weeks I had 2 appointments, except the first one was with a physicians associate who was as useful as a chocolate teapot, so I still had to be seen by a GP. But hey, that's 2 appointments, right? So far I've been waiting 3 months for an asthma test but I'm sure with the waiting lists coming down I'm going to be seen any day now (not holding my breath)

I was seen by a GP this morning having filled in an Econsult form last week. I received a letter by email at 1pm with a hospital appointment for next Thursday.

An asthma test ?
Sorry I don't follow, do you mean a peak flow ? In most GP practices asthma is managed very well by nurses. What is it exactly you are waiting for ?

Spirometry. I've likely got asthma and waiting for a spirometry appointment. Does it really matter? The fact that asthma is managed by nurses at the GP is not a relief, btw.

Exactly the same with Labour voters and the Tory’s then?

Good point - that makes the ‘achievement’ even worse then, doesn’t it? If we assume for every doctors appointment there were two non doctor ones, then they’ve only managed to deliver 1% more appointments year on year. The reality I expect is that the ratio is higher, and that the claimed increase is a mere rounding, even when the comparative period had massive industrial action. Agin, underlining the falling (failing?) productivity in the NHS.

Ok I think I got confused with you talking about physcian's assitants and GP appointments so assumed you were waiting for a primary care asthma apoimtment. I don't think spirometryis routinely used to diagnose asthma but obviously some one thinks the information will be useful. It sounds like this is a secondary care appointment and likely limited by the equipment/space rather than personnel- that will take time to sort out. Sleep studies are similar ( for which there are absolutely shocking wait times).

Not at all.
Labour has a lot of criticism from within. It’s a long standing situation which can cause issues as there’s less ‘team unity’ than the Tories (historically) have mustered.

That doesn't make sense. You said x number if strike days represented 10% reduction in appointments. That was wrong as it meant 10% reduction in appointments with junior doctors who were striking. Unless you know what the percentage of appointments were with junior doctors you don't know what the reduction in appointments was, just that it was less than 10 %. So you said due to strikes appointments were down 10% and have increased by 4% but the reduction in appointments might have been 1% so the increase was much more.

Not all appointments are with junior doctors so quoting the affect of strikes is bogus unless you know how many appointments were missed.

Not all doctors are junior and not all junior doctors did strike. You need all the figures to work it out you can't just randomly pick some to "prove" what you sent to prove.

Would love to know where all these appointments are. Because of medication I take I'm supposed to have bloods done every six months. January and July. Called the surgery after Christmas - no appointments. They have sent me three texts asking me to make an appointment. I called them a further three times - no appointments until at least the end of March so ring again then. I used to ring and get an appointment within a few days. Haven't seen an actual doctor since I came out of hospital following a hysterectomy in 2019 and received no follow up at all from the GP.