One in three doctors are so tired it affects their ability to treat patients. Years of underfunding, understaffing and underpaying in our health service means our health is at risk. One in four doctors reported a patient had suffered harm or that there was a near miss because of the level of overworking. And it’s getting worse, according to a survey by the Medical Defence Union and reported in the Guardian.
Doctors frequently miss breaks, leave work exhausted and come to work at their next shift still tired. Health workers took action during the recent strike wave over pay, cut in real terms over a decade. This low pay and long hours has led to the staffing crisis which leaves doctors too tired to safely treat patients.
We need the funding our NHS and health needs. We need to kick out private profit and the transfusion of cash into the coffers of big business. And, while health secretary Wes Streeting mulls bringing back the controversial and wasteful PFI contracts to fund NHS infrastructure spending, we need a mass workers’ party that will fight for the NHS, not private health bosses.
