When announcing a plan to allow pharmacists to prescribe antibiotics to ease GP pressures this week, she admitted that she had dished out antibiotics to her friends when they had been ill. This had the medical community up in arms, prompting a slap on the wrist from Number 10.
But the damage had already been done.
NHS staff have for years been responsible gatekeepers of such drugs, understanding that growing antibiotic resistance is a significant world issue—and that the message she sent was therefore deeply problematic.
If that wasn’t enough, Coffey courted more anger when she said in a televised interview that there would be no pay rise for nurses, and that ‘if they don’t like it, they can go elsewhere.’ How she thinks the NHS can carry on when it is already short 40,000 nurses is anyone’s guess.
These multiple cases of myopia are signs of a health secretary completely out of her depth, and at odds with the medical profession. They do not bode at all well for the future of a service already on the brink.
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https://tribunemag.co.uk/2022/10/therese-coffey-plan-for-patients-nhs-health-service-gps