PMQs yesterday could have been better. Keir Starmer used the example of one person on his second question but did not mention that strike action may be averted in Scotland where nurses are voting on the pay deal that has been offered to them. If Alex, the person Starmer mentioned in PMQs lived in Scotland, his operation would not be cancelled by strike action, an issue later mentioned by the SNP. Sunak mentioned COVID as being the reason for the NHS waiting lists, Starmer responded with the report the government commissioned which cited a decade of underfunding as a reason for the care backlog. I did not hear Starmer mention how staffing shortages are causing operations to be cancelled especially as Sunak blamed strikes for this.
Eating disorders were mentioned later by Fabian Hamilton, delays in mental health treatment being reported in the media as causing children to be put into care.
Ambulance waiting times were brought up as well and Sunak implied that there were no issues before the pandemic, but the issue of ambulance waits being too long was discussed in Parliament in 2016 and the issue of some patients waiting more than 24 hours for an ambulance was raised by the media in 2018. Issues of patients waiting in ambulances for too long before being handed over to A&E was also discussed before the pandemic, this article being from 2017.
Basically, there is an argument that these strikes are political, though those making the argument are blaming the left. When it comes to NHS workers, the strikes could be stopped, as they have in Scotland, by the government talking to the unions. That they are not, is a political decision because they hope to make Labour look bad over this. I guess those working in the NHS (like me) should be glad that we have been clapped.
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