Amy Smith

Overseas-trained doctors leaving the UK in record numbers Medical bodies warn that hostility towards migrants is behind a 26% rise in departures that imperils NHS Record numbers of overseas-trained doctors are quitting the UK, leaving the NHS at risk of huge gaps in its workforce, with hostility towards migrants blamed for the exodus. In all, 4,880 doctors who qualified in another country left the UK during 2024 – a rise of 26% on the 3,869 who did so the year before – figures from the General Medical Council reveal. Continue reading...

Overseas-trained doctors leaving the UK in record numbers

The Covid Inquiry finds that if Boris Johnson had called the first lockdown even one week earlier then it could have saved at least 20,000 lives.

Here's a quick reminder of what Johnson was actually doing during those weeks

They missed opportunities to save lives….

But, didn’t miss opportunities for political friends to make £billions from VIP Lane PPE and Covid Testing deals..

Viplanebook.com

@bylinetimes.bsky.social @goodlawproject.org @goodlawproject.bsky.social @mrjamesob.bsky.social

Covid Inquiry: Too little, too late - too many lives lost Many will conclude what they knew already: the government acted too little, too late, there was chaos and toxicity, and later decisions were not backed by data, writes Krishnan Guru-Murthy.

🗣️ Many will conclude what they knew already: the government acted too little, too late, there was chaos and toxicity, and later decisions were not backed by data.

@krishgm.bsky.social writes in the latest edition of our weekly long read newsletter, InDepth

‘Too little, too late’: damning report condemns UK’s Covid response Report on handling of pandemic contains stinging criticism of ‘toxic and chaotic’ culture inside Boris Johnson’s No 10

UK Covid-19 Inquiry says govt response to the pandemic in March 2020 was "too little, too late"

Imposing lockdown a week earlier could have saved 23,000 lives in England

In 2016 govt knew the NHS couldn't cope with a flu epidemic but had no plan.

What did austerity do?

‘Too little, too late’: damning report condemns UK’s Covid response Report on handling of pandemic contains stinging criticism of ‘toxic and chaotic’ culture inside Boris Johnson’s No 10

‘Too little, too late’: damning report condemns UK’s Covid response

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Boris Johnson's lack of leadership blamed for 23,000 Covid deaths A scathing report by inquiry chair Baroness Hallett also criticises the Department of Health, led by the current Cabinet Secretary Sir Chris Wormald and the then minister Matt Hancock

Boris Johnson’s lack of leadership over the seriousness of Covid led to the first lockdown being introduced too late, which contributed to the loss of 23,000 lives, the official inquiry into his handling of the pandemic has concluded

inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Reading the report really took me back to those days all doctors and NHS workers will remember; knowing it was coming, knowing it was going to be bad.

The parts about the opportunities squandered - not just early on but repeatedly - to reduce the impact are really hard to read.

Government response to Covid was ‘too little too late’, inquiry finds Report says 23,000 deaths could have been avoided with earlier lockdown

23,000 deaths in England could have been prevented in the first wave of Covid if lockdown had started a week earlier, a new report by the Covid Inquiry has found.

Read more in The Doctor Magazine👇
thedoctor.bma.org.uk/articles/hea...

If NHS trusts hadn’t had to pay more than £1.8 billion in *interest charges* to private companies, that money could have paid for the starting salaries of over 50,000 NHS doctors 😮🚨

Can we focus more on how victims of sexual violence continue to be failed today and less on the drama of the Royal Family? Then perhaps some good might come from this?

Nearly 150,000 aged 90 and above wait 12 hours in England’s A&Es each year Older people left in their own excrement and wet beds for hours and forced to watch others die, Age UK report finds

150,000 aged 90 and above wait 12 hours in England’s A&Es each year.

Older people left in excrement, wet beds, denied pain relief, forced to watch/hear other patients die.

NHS money pilfered by PFI and privatisation

But ... Govts have fiscal rules and don't want to tax the rich.

Of course she has. The small matter of owing £122 million to UK taxpayers for her disgusting profiteering in a global pandemic means nothing to Michelle Mone.

NHS staff died in my hospital from the Covid they caught there - her dodgy PPE racket was vile.

NHS needs up to £3bn extra to avoid cuts, health leaders warn Health leaders say progress on reducing waiting lists will be affected if there is no help in making up the financial shortfall.

Tax rises for us all or finally go after the very wealthy?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

NHS needs up to £3bn extra to avoid cuts, health leaders warn Health leaders say progress on reducing waiting lists will be affected if there is no help in making up the financial shortfall.

NHS needs up to £3bn extra to avoid cuts, health leaders warn.

Cuts = money wasted on redundancies.

NHS leaks money due to PFI, privatisation profits.

6.26m await 7.41m England hospital appointments.

Can't expand economy without healthy workforce.

Must increase NHS capacity. Pay doctors/nurses.

Racist incidents against UK nurses surge by 55% Royal College of Nursing calls on government to stop using anti-migrant rhetoric, which it says emboldens racist behaviour

The Farage Factor.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

We really need to discuss what bribery and corruption are, why some seems to be legal and how to reform it - in the UK before it gets as bad as the US, and of course in the US.

As a GP, I am not allowed to receive a pen or post-it note pad from a pharmaceutical company rep

Govt banned them in case I was influenced to prescribe medications

This should also be banned

Influence being bought in Govt

Patients should influence not the healthy & wealthy

Racist incidents against UK nurses surge by 55% Royal College of Nursing calls on government to stop using anti-migrant rhetoric, which it says emboldens racist behaviour

This is what tolerance of anti-migrant political rhetoric leads to. A surge in racial abuse against nurses and care workers. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Scottish ‘junior’ Doctors accepted a pay offer 2023 with no strikes

▪️12.4% 2023
▪️inflation beating pay rises for 3yrs
▪️commitment to full pay restoration
▪️removal from “independent” pay review body

The Govt listened & talked to the BMA🤷🏻‍♂️

Imagine a Govt willing to negotiate

You can do it Wes!!

"Accountability remains almost completely absent. The VIP Lane has been ruled unlawful, but the Covid Inquiry hasn’t called in the companies that profited from it."

Yay. Priceless. The right column at the right time. And a gleefully English two fingers to the haters.

Good to see @eddavey.libdems.org.uk being more direct about the disaster that is Brexit. No solution exists to Britain's economic woes that doesn't involve a reversing major parts of the Brexit deal and eventually reversing it altogether.

Baroness Mone isn’t the only Tory Peer named as a VIP Lane referrer.

Also on the list:

Lord Agnew
Lord Gove
Lord Leigh
Lord Feldman
Lord Chadlington
Lord Marks
Lord Deighton
Lord Bethell
Lord Lansley
Lord Prior
+10 other Tory MP’s 👀⤵️

Listen to my chat with @BylineTimesPod :

Boris Johnson breached rules designed to stop abuse of contacts made in public office, watchdog finds Johnson found to have breached rules after refusing to answer specific questions about allegations published by the Guardian

Former PM Boris Johnson breached rules designed to stop abuse of contacts made in public office.

Secretly lobbied the UAE for a billion-dollar private venture,
Used senior contacts in the Saudi govt to pitch for a consultancy firm.

Lust for private wealth is the main cause of UK decline.

Nigel Farage accuses teachers of ‘poisoning our kids’ on race issues Exclusive: Reform UK leader’s remarks at event for private US college criticised as ‘grossly irresponsible’ by NEU leader

Farage/Reform and the Trump playbook.

Mass sackings of unsympathetic civil servants
Promise to reduce workers's rights
Inflict spending cuts - hit the poor, old, sick, disabled

Now claims teachers are “poisoning our kids” - just as Nazis did to control education.

Power grab by dividing society.

It's not asylum seekers who jack up rents, undermine the NHS, hold down wages and keep people insecure.
It's capital.
The role of the far right is to shift the blame for decades of economic attacks by the rich and powerful onto powerless people who have only just arrived here.

The Bishop of Birmingham has written to the Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick about his comments about Handsworth

FNAIT Identified as a Notable Cause in Some Cases of Prenatal Intracranial Hemorrhage FNAIT was identified as one of the potential causes of nonobvious prenatal intracranial hemorrhage discovered using ultrasound and MRI.

New research into prenatally diagnosed intracranial hemorrhage (#ICH) presented at the 2025 @isuog.bsky.social World Congress revealed fetal and neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (#FNAIT) as one of the identifiable causes.

Read more: https://bit.ly/42EEDue

#RareSky #MedSky

Jane Goodall offers sage advice for the rest of us. #3E