New research by the Doctors’ Association UK has been featured in Medscape. A new DAUK survey has highlighted that over three quarters of NHS doctors have been unable to get…
Doctors’ Association president Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden said: “It is a disgrace that NHS staff and patients are being forced to drive hundreds of miles to access a test whilst unwell if one is available to them at all. For frontline NHS staff preparing for a second wave this feels like Groundhog Day. The same problems we were having accessing testing in March appear to be repeating themselves. It seems that we are heading into a second peak having not learned lessons from the first.”
GP Dr Vinesh Patel said: “Natural winter demands, increasing numbers of Coronavirus cases, the critical need to restart normal services and reduced staff numbers will lead to the collapse of Primary Care when it is again most needed. The inevitable consequence is reduced GP appointments; forcing many patients to attend A & E inappropriately or worse not seek help when required.
The Doctors Association UK (DAUK) has warned that the government has not learned lessons from the first wave of the pandemic - insisting that the NHS ‘can’t afford for a single doctor to be self-isolating’ due to a lack of tests.
DAUK President Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden speaks to the Huffington Post about the chaotic Test and Trace service which has left hundreds of frontline doctors unable to access testing.
With NHS staff having to leave the frontlines to isolate, and patients travelling up to 500 miles to find a centre, DAUK’s Dr Sophie Rowlands explains the results of DAUK’s which shows NHS staff being unable to access timely testing.
Surging demand following the reopening of schools has generated a backlog of 185,000 tests, just as the pace of infections threatens to explode. “We are sleepwalking into a second surge of the pandemic without really having learned the lessons from the first,” said Dr. Rinesh Parmar, Chairman of the Doctors’ Association UK
DAUK's Dr Zainab Najim on the troubles of obtaining a COVID test as an essential worker
Trainee GP, Dr Najim and her doctor husband who have symptoms have been isolated for two days trying to get a test. And so far her husband's been told by his hospital there's no priority test for him.
'We have contacted occupational health, but they can't take calls. We've left an email and their response has been that they are really, really overstretched at the moment and to try the government service in the first instance. And in the meantime, they are trying to work through the backlog.'
