Our poor health
SO, fellas, how do you fancy a pair of these trendy new designer jeans?
Forget the ones with holes in the knees or the a*** hanging out, the latest designer denims are “pre-stained” – with fake mud.
Made in the US (obvs) but sure to be a hit with London hipsters, they’re described as “rugged Americana workwear with a cracked, caked- on muddy coating”. And I DON’T know what Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt was doing at 9pm on Wednesday – but I bet you anything he wasn’t watching Channel 4. I guarantee he wasn’t sitting on his sofa with tears in his eyes like I was, feeling anger and disgust, as well as pity. I was watching Confessions of a Junior Doctor, the documentary series following a group of young medics working on the NHS front line. But Mr Hunt is no champion of junior doctors and he doesn’t want to see, or hear, the truth. The series was filmed at Northampton General Hospital, with this episode focused on the doctors in A&E. And it captured the “black alert” day last October when the hospital was completely full, with staff pushed to the limi t . Corridors were lined with t he sick on trolleys as ambulances slipping them on in the comfort of your trendy flat will tell the world “you’re not afraid to get down and dirty”.
Mind you, they could also tell the world that you’ve have had a catastrophic attack of Delhi belly after a Brick Lane curry.
Or that you’re a pillock for splashing out £ 330 on a pair of ridiculous poo-coloured trews. queued outside. One patient waited more than 21 hours to be admitted. Staff desperately shuffled others between wards to try to free up a spare bed.
And amidst all this chaos, we saw second-year doctor Morgan Sykes, 24, pictured right, trying to treat dozens of patients simultaneously.
Speaking with searing honesty she admitted being “physically and emotionally exhausted” explaining: “You feel completely stretched beyond any limit that is acceptable. It is a horrible, horrible feeling, just feeling you are losing the battle.
“But you don’t want to rush your clinical assessment of someone. That’s when you can make mistakes and that’s when it can be dangerous.”
Confirming her worst fears, Dr Sykes, 24, then sent home a man with a bad back, only for him to be returned by ambulance with a compressed nerve in his spine.
Later she was stopped from moving a baby with sepsis off the resuscitation ward after having incorrectly scored its symptoms. Neither patient suffered as a result but it left Dr Sykes feeling “humiliated.” My heart went out to her and her fellow medics, talented, idealistic young men and women being driven to despair – not helped to care. Do you remember how, in September, Mr Hunt accused striking junior doctors of leaving patients “in pain” and Theresa May said they were “playing politics”? Well, now it’s time for us all to play politics and use our votes wisely on June 8. I’d very much like Mr Hunt to find himself in the painful position of being out of a job, unlikely as that is. Because a Tory government with an increased majority will continue bleeding our NHS to death and pursuing a stealthy mission of privatisation. If you haven’t seen Confessions of a Junior Doctor, do try on Wednesday. But I bet Mr Hunt will prefer the show that’s on Channel 5 at the same time – Can’t Pay? We’ll Take It Away.