Thousands of empty vaccination slots throughout trusts in NIreland. DoH tell us there’s plenty of Pfizer but it isn’t being used. We need a second dose for healthcare workers now or would they rather waste it on a point of principle?
#everybodyknows
There’s significant tiredness , stress and burnout in HCWs at present so take a break, book 2 weeks leave in the next few months if you can and find your marathon pace. Good for you and good for patients.
Overwhelming workload led to burnout resulting in resignations and now the remaining NHS staff are being abused. Kindness civility and respect are now needed
GPs warned about the workforce crisis for 15 years and when the service is overwhelmed who gets the blame? Not those who failed to fund the service but the few remaining GPs trying their best to hold the service together.
I’m so sad I can’t help listening to
@StephenNolan
on GP services even when on my first break for over 2 years.
Very fair reporting and I’m happy to answer every single question on my return
Perhaps the most telling comment was ‘our phones are jammed with people wanting to speak!
So GP practices are now in debt to their banks due the funding crisis and going deeper into the red each month. The present contract isn’t viable and more GP practice contracts will be handed back this winter. This will have a dreadful effect on patient care and ED attendances.
Investment in GP: GP practices are facing spiralling costs, rocketing inflation, a huge increase in the need for appointments and ever-increasing complexity and yet we see a real time decrease in funding of 6.92%
99% of NI citizens will receive timely evidenced based COVID vaccines. 1% won’t as they will receive a delayed Pfizer second dose and they’re all health care workers
#guineapigs
This job is too difficult and too important to be badly paid. The request for pay restoration is measured and reasonable. Is fairness a thing of the past in N Ireland?
@NIJDC
This is first time doctors in NI have moved to ballot for IA. The NHS is collapsing and patients and staff are suffering. No such thing as innocent bystanding.
“No evidence of a decline” using a double negative doesn’t reassure health care workers. There is no evidence of maintaining immunity after 42 days.
#everybodyknows
Thousands of healthcare workers unable to work through illness and the smart thing would be to give them second Pfizer dose to give optimal protection. Cutting off their nose to spite their face.
#everybodyknows
Front page of today’s
@ObserverUK
,
@CNagpaul
reiterates our demand for all health and social care workers to be vaccinated immediately as the toll of staff sickness absence on the NHS workforce becomes clear: over 46,000 hospital staff off with
#COVID19
The state of GP in NI is easy to describe; underfunded overworked and understaffed with practices become more stressed financially every week. We know no one cares because they don’t do anything to help.
General Practice across the UK is in a very difficult place, but it is worth reminding yourself just how much more difficult it is in NI.
Most frustratingly there are some straightforward actions that can change the trajectory completely
@BelTel
This is about keeping the doors of a 100year old practice open and keeping the NHS service free for our patients. This is what you have to do when Stormont doesn’t do its job and underfunds healthcare. They’ve done it to dentistry and now they’re doing it to GPs.
NHS in NI now overwhelmed in GP, ambulance service, ED, wards and social care with longest waiting lists in UK. Underfunded and understaffed with stress and burnout the norm. And patients suffer the consequences
Nurses have lost 10% in pay since 2010, while junior doctors were paid 26% less in real terms this year than in 2008! Let’s all support our NHS and its greatest asset - not by clapping but by proper remuneration.
@theRCN
@TheBMA
We’ve had a series of governments completely mess up the NHS and cause the public and HCWs to lose confidence in a 75 year old institution. There’s only one thing worse than having no politicians and that’s having a group of uneducated incompetent ideologues- na tóraí
DDRB quote of day: "doctors ..should not be treated as an exception..when this is not happening in other groups"
I AGREE 👏
DDRB
#shouldhavegonetoSpecSavers
👓➡️wouldnt be in this mess with 7.5 MILLION W/L(highest ever & rising)if we were "other groups"👇 vs
#JustAnotherPaycut
This is same old tired dissembling and obfuscation. An opinion wrapped in an assumption imposed with arrogance and argued with cynicism. When I say everybody knows I mean really, everybody knows.
#everybodyknows
The average GP practice in N Ireland is underfunded by at least £100k per year due to repeated underfunding and the GP service is no longer viable. Radical change needed.
GP Practice is not being funded to provide care for patients
Of the £181bn NHS budget just £10bn goes to provide GP services, just £164 per patient per year (for everything as often as people consult) and this is a real terms cut of 20% in the past 7 years
It’s impossible
Despite the hard work of ED colleagues my patients now regularly refuse admission to hospital and prefer to take their chances at home rather than subject themselves to the long waits in ED.
📢 GP contract negotiations have ended without resolution.
GPCW chair
@GOelmann
said “Unless Welsh Government commit to a rescue package that supports GPs & patients with the correct level of support then the GP crisis will only deepen in Wales” ▶️
Repeating the same London diktat doesn’t protect the healthcare workers in N Ireland. BMA will fight every day until the last healthcare worker gets their second Pfizer vaccine.
The first priority for dealing with the crisis in the NHS is to improve working conditions for healthcare staff which will improve retention. Cutting pay and overloading the remaining staff with excess workload will encourage emigration, resignations and retirements.
"Health professionals have other options if they feel undervalued. Public sector pay restraint is an easy option for governments facing financial pressures, but is ultimately unsustainable"
@hans_kluge
@TomasZapata111
@natasha_azzmus
@martinmckee
@BMA_NI
@UBMcE
@OHaganFrances
Just to be clear on this too, a risk assessment will undoubtedly result in the use of PPE for all patients. That is certainly the case in my practice.
But this is second doses of Pfizer for doctors in UK. N Ireland is very poor compared to England where doctors are better protected with a second dose.
I worked alongside him for a couple of years and he lead by example. He was loved, admired and respected. We do our best to follow the path he followed.
My former partner Dr Tom McGinley RIP not only founded the Foyle Hospice, he was a GP for many years Derry serving the patients of Aberfoyle Medical Practice. Was fortunate to have him, Peter Fallon and Vincent Cavanagh as mentors. Giants of general practice
@rcgp_ni
@BMANI_GP
We’ve seen a huge increase in GP workload trying to ensure that patients with red flag referrals receive timely diagnosis and management due to long waiting times.
No mention of it here - or from govt ministers - that the knock on impact on gen practice is huge. Patients on waiting lists become more unwell, suffer more pain/disability & remain off work longer affecting mental health leading to a need for GP to input
Our doctors and nurses are working very hard in ED to help patients in need but they aren’t helped by the lack of funding , staff and hospital beds. This winter will be much worse. Political complacency needs to end.
NIC Chair
@TomblackBlack
speaking today on the
@BBCNolan
about the pressures on EDs as the Department of Health releases the quarterly figures for Emergency Department waiting times.
Listen back here:
Decision overload leads to fatigue and increased risks for patients. The workload and stress in general practice is worse than it’s ever been and it will deteriorate markedly this winter.
This is exactly why we are about to release safety guidance to our practices. It is not safe, fair or sustainable for GP or for patient.
GP burnout: 'I was left feeling like a husk of a human' - BBC News
'This is going to get much worse'
Dr Tom Black, chair of the
@BMA_NI
, tells the Breakfast Show that the health service is facing huge pressures that will only increase in the weeks over Christmas.
HCWs are underpaid and overwhelmed with workload doing their best for patients and struggling to pay their bills. The NHS in N Ireland is now entering a death spiral this winter.
We welcome the action taken by NI Trust CEOs in trying to address the lack of funding for a pay uplift in Northern Ireland.
Junior doctors and consultants will continue to plan to ballot for industrial action to address the long-term issues around pay parity and pay erosion.
Decreased funding , increased need in our community and a workforce crisis demands innovation. There is no such thing as an innocent bystander. Self sufficiency and community action will have to fill the political vacuum.
Unless you’re a front line HCW you have no idea how difficult it is to cope with a collapsing service at present. Managers with opinions based on corrupt data are a particular menace at the moment.
@AinemCarroll
@WalleyRay
General practice in N Ireland is underfunded understaffed and overwhelmed with workload. Multiple practice closures and contract hand backs with worse to come. Affects all areas not just rural.
Reduced funding will result in a loss of workforce, longer waiting lists and an increase in patient suffering. An embarrassing abrogation of political responsibility by Westminster and Stormont.
We can't keep doing more for less, the figures outlined today will have a devastating impact on patients and the workforce. We need our local Assembly and Executive in place to begin addressing these problems
@TomblackBlack
@AlanStout19
Packed meeting of
@NIJDC
with much discussion on issues and solutions to areas such as banding, rota gaps and leave entitlements, to name but a few areas. Many thanks to
@drjosiech
from WJDC &
@LewyHughey
from SJDC for coming along.
#TakeControl
Important info for GPs about new Covid centres in NI here:
@AlanStout19
We will very rapidly establish ‘Covid Centres’ in each Trust area staffed by GPs and support staff, using our unique skillset to help manage the anticipated large numbers of patients
Thank you to everyone who has completed our vaccine tracker surveys so far - the latest one went to a sample of our members today. We’ve created a webpage with visuals where you can follow the results as each wave of the survey is completed
5.4% of the health budget goes on GP services which isn’t sustainable so there won’t be enough GPs ,patients will suffer and staff will leave due to burnout. The department will now talk about efficiency and productivity aka rearranging the deckchairs.
The Auditor General’s report shines a spotlight on an inescapable truth: without proper transformation and proper investment from
@healthdpt
, GP services will continue to suffer. GPs and patients don’t need a sticking plaster, they need a solution.
@SDLPlive
|
@MatthewOToole2
Inadequate funding to maintain our healthcare workforce results in poorer care for patients. Our politicians need to step up and get us an increase in funding for our NHS.
@AlanStout19
It’s well known that general practice is rice culture not wheat. It requires close attention, autonomy, flexibility and risk management. The rice farmer needs to be on site to adapt to challenges- the dead hand of bureaucracy and managers doesn’t work
This makes recruitment and retention of doctors in N Ireland really difficult as medical posts in the Republic of Ireland are now so much more attractive.
Thank you
@DHSCgovuk
@NHSEngland
for treating your medics so abysmally - ireland is now ranking second on emigration list for UK medics Please keep it up
Our EDs are both busy with large numbers of people attending in the past 24 hours, and a high volume of patients requiring admission.
Altnagelvin / SWAH
119 / 41 people currently in the ED
41 / 15 people awaiting admission
156 / 78 attendances since midnight
GPs need to take action and take control of what we can to sustain any sort of service in the coming months. Our guidance will help to protect you as an individual, protect your practice as an entity and above all protect patient safety
Read the guidance:
This will result in longer waits for all services in the health service in NI. Stress for patients and stress for staff. Inadequate funding and a constrained workforce will result in harm to patients.
Despite record waiting lists and outcry from staff, the health service in Northern Ireland will have to make do with a miniscule increase in funding this financial year, after a controversial new budget for the region was unveiled
Having too few doctors and nurses not only results in a poorer quality service for patients but stresses the staff we have leading to early retirements and resignations. And the vicious cycle continues.
@conorbrads
@AlanStout19
@BBCgmu
Every week brings more cuts to services and more pressure on patients and staff. Joe Biden said “don’t tell me what you value, show me your budget and I’ll tell you what you value”
@BBCNolan
Good balanced informed debate. The failure of the NHS in NI is forcing patients who can afford to to go private. We need to ensure that vulnerable deprived populations’ services are protected.
TodayWell that’s it:I retire as a GP in Aberfoyle Medical Practice. 01/27 years as partner! Met some brilliant people along the way, colleagues and patients, who I learned a lot from: absolute privilege to have been a GP in Derry
@BMA_NI
@qsiobhan
@TheDrMagazine
Inadequate funding ,too few doctors and nurses and patients waiting longer for health care puts pressure on EDs and the whole system. No Assembly and SoS has set autopilot. The NHS in NI will get worse this winter
Dr Angela Garvey and the Lieutenancy team
@lord_Lieut_cbld
warmly congratulate Mrs Michelle Doherty
@WesternHSCTrust
who received her MBE for services to nursing today, at Windsor Castle from HRH The Princess Royal.
@TheKingsFund
It’s the lethal combination of too few nurses and too few doctors that does the damage. Not to mention low funding , fewer hospital beds and poor infrastructure
The Great Resignation - How do we support and retain staff already stretched to their limit?
Less than a week left to register for BMA Northern Ireland’s all member meeting.
📅Join us on 24/11 from 7-9pm.
Register -
CPD has been applied for.
@AlanStout19
Especially when compared to the puerile behaviour of the incumbent who is playing politics with the bedrock service of the NHS. A government without shame.
@BMAScotland
@AndrewBuist17
GPs and their staff at risk everywhere in the UK due to government underfunding and huge hospital waiting lists. More GP resignations, retirements and emigration leading to GP practice collapses. No hope in sight for years from politicians. It will get worse before it gets better