Torygraph’s ‘Project Fear’ over junior doctors has shot itself in the foot
![Junior doctors wear scrubs and masks as they sit down in a silent protest outside Bristol Royal Infirmary on the second day of their all-out strike [Image: Ben Birchall/PA].](https://voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/160428juniordocsoutsideBRI.png)
Junior doctors wear scrubs and masks as they sit down in a silent protest outside Bristol Royal Infirmary on the second day of their all-out strike [Image: Ben Birchall/PA].
It’s only a few days since the Torygraph published a story, purportedly by a junior doctor, on why he “no longer” supported the strike. There was only one problem.
Nobody at the paper had checked Adam Dalby’s background – or they knew about it and were reckless about the possibility that others would research him too. He has no general medical experience.
Now we have a claim that the strikes have built up a “lethal backlog” of patients – despite the fact that consultants covered for the striking doctors and the only operations that were cancelled were non-urgent.
This Writer agrees with the comment about the story by a referrer on Facebook, who wrote, sarcastically, “So it’s NOT about cutting budgets and asking hospitals to cut yet more – it’s all about those irresponsible doctors, ‘creating’ a crisis.
“Even for the right-wing press, this attempt to shift blame is clumsy.
“This is about cutting staff, cutting budgets, cutting the NHS. Which is ALL the Tories ever want to do.”
But you won’t see anyone saying that in the Torygraph article’s comment column – because there isn’t one. Readers are being denied a right to respond – which is a shame because the box-out about the reasons for the strike is drivel and creates a dangerous false impression.
I notice this story has been picked up by the Independent, whose editors ought to know better.
Will either of these establishments run follow-up articles when their scaremongering proves baseless?
Two days of strikes by junior doctors have created a “lethal backlog” of patients, experts have warned, amid fears hospitals will become overloaded over the Bank Holiday weekend.
Hospitals are braced for a deluge of cases, as thousands of patients who put off going to Accident & Emergency departments during the walkouts turn to their local hospitals en masse.
NHS officials said they were concerned that demand for healthcare would surge just as GP practices across the country close for a three day weekend.
Source: NHS warning over bank holiday pressures ahead
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Not surprised at the guff that gets into the Torygraph. Costs are cut right to the bone and the paper is hardly edited properly. Read all about it in Private Eye.
It’s okay to claim a “lethal backlog” which in itself doesn’t hold water but how about the claim that when Labour came to power waiting lists for routine surgery stood at 2+ years and by 2010 had been virtually eradicated! So Tories screw up Labour clean up the mess, Tories get it back and look where we are heading again, a Government at war with the NHS, underinvestment longest A&E waiting times longest for years. There is no excuse for underwing when most people would be prepared to pay more to protect the NHS but no, we have a Mover who will sell it off to put a few quid in their own and their mates pockets! B*st*RDS!
Pleased their pitiful attempt to get everybody worked up and turn against the junior doctors failed, there was no crisis when they went on strike so once again CHunt and the tories have embarrassed themselves!
These ingenuous media stories will be discussed around the boardroom tables when the revenue of the publishers takes a nosedive. Their readers may be Tory’ised, but they are not stupid.
The junior doctor status needs examination here, and some motives. Dalby has altered his blog to remove the FY1 mention!! (This is one of the key argumants being used against him….)
The blog has only been extant barely a month and it’s normal practice to prick and preen at one’s early words in a blog, but the timing co-incidence is remarkable following the torygraff’s piece.
Fortunately, you can still read Adam Dalby’s early words of genius here in the internet archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160321191536/http://thebloggingphysician.com/2016/03/09/why-blog/