Dr Claire McGonagle

Dr since 1999. Portfolio GP esp love Dermatology, Palliative, Pre-hospital,& Urgent Care. #ALS Instructor / MD. Depute CD LOOHs. #DUMC #Art Thoughts all my own

[Dr Melissa Ryan 🦀 @Melissa_S_Ryan]

The question to ask is ‘can England afford to lose more doctors’?

I say no. Waiting lists are huge (despite creative accounting of numbers), patient outcomes are disappointing for a first world country.

Valuing our doctors and paying them appropriately could turn this around

[Dr Haseena Wazir @DrHWazir]

Medicine is in crisis.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of doctors are looking to leave the NHS because training jobs are scarce, pay has been eroded, & their work is not valued.

This crisis sits at the Government’s door. That is why doctors are going back on the picket line.

[Dr Haseena Wazir @DrHWazir]

A fully qualified FY1 doctor earns £19.27/hr after 5-6 years of medical school and over £100,000 of student debt.

We are asking to reach £23.41/hr over time.

That is fair, reasonable and long overdue for highly qualified professionals.

Doctors deserve to be valued properly.

[David Booth @dbooth3]

Doctors are driving Ubers because the NHS doesn't want to give them training places. Profit instead of doctors, nurses and beds.

[Public Health Scotland @P_H_S_Official]

Women aged between 50 and 70 are invited for breast screening every 3 years.
During #BreastCancerPreventionWeek, we’re encouraging everyone invited to take up their appointment.
📲To find out more visit: https://t.co/njil30wOPU
#BreastScreeningScot

[Dr Haseena Wazir @DrHWazir]

The Telegraph has reported that almost half of NHS hospitals are using advanced practitioners to cover doctors’ shifts.

Some of these shifts would ordinarily be covered by doctors in the final years of specialty training; often the most senior doctor on site below consultant level.

Every NHS colleague has an important role and should be valued. But different roles involve different training, responsibilities and limits. Medical rota gaps should not be quietly filled by blurring professional boundaries.

This is a system-level concern. Patients should know who is treating them, what their role is, and whether they are being assessed by a doctor. That matters for consent and accountability.

In 2025, 40,000 doctors applied for 10,000 NHS specialty training jobs.

That means thousands of doctors who could be training to become specialist GPs, consultants were unable to progress because the number of posts is capped centrally by the Government.

At the same time, 1,000 additional specialist training jobs that were due to enter the NHS pipeline were removed by Wes Streeting and Keir Starmer.

So we now have a system where doctors are trying to train, hospitals are struggling to fill medical rotas, and patients are left with less clarity about who is providing their care.

If the NHS does not have enough doctors on the rota, the answer is simple: train enough doctors, employ enough doctors, and give patients clarity about who is treating them.
https://t.co/4sdgWqcLNB

[Dr Aadam Aziz @Aadam_Aziz]

This is the sad reality of a normal day in the NHS. No strikes, No excuses.

Yet we’ve got fully qualified doctors sitting unemployed while patients are left waiting 21 hours in A&E.

Years of mismanagement and catastrophic workforce planning failure.

What a betrayal to patients

[Dr Dan Goyal @danielgoyal]

You can’t be serious about sorting the healthcare crisis in the U.K. without committing to training more senior doctors.

Now is the time to expand the NHS workforce

https://t.co/P2qTgD5gJ6

[The BMA @TheBMA]

We have uncovered a haphazard approach to the use of Advanced Practitioner (AP) roles by NHS trusts. Our investigation has revealed almost half of hospital trusts are using non-doctors to fill doctor rota gaps.

APs can play an important and valued role in patient care. But they should not be asked to substitute for doctors to address staffing gaps.

Patients shouldn’t have to worry about whether NHS managers have asked non-doctors to deliver care that only doctors can safely deliver.

Read the full story: https://t.co/kSI340ouIc

[BRITAIN IS BROKEN 🇬🇧 @BROKENBRITAIN0]

🚨NEW: It has been revealed that almost HALF of all NHS hospital trusts are using “non-doctors” to fill doctors roles! 🇬🇧

They are using under qualified staff to fill in “rota gaps”, with the doctors union describing the move as a “potential disaster”

The advanced practitioners, AKA physician associates, offer one from a background of paramedics or nursing, however, the BMA has said bosses are going TOO FAR - pushing the staff way beyond their training ⚠️

This genuinely sounds like a disaster waiting to happen 😬

[Neena Jha @DrNeenaJha]

If a GP, who is a senior doctor, refers a patient to secondary care & the referral gets rejected…

We MUST know who has rejected that referral
• Their name
• Their position (doctor/**non-doctor)

It’s a basic requirement & medico-legally this must be mandatory!

[Partha S Kar 🇮🇳🇬🇧🏏🎥 @parthaskar]

Incredible positive news in the world of medicine 🥰

Fingers crossed 🤞🏽

[Dr Luke Evans MP @drlukeevans]

Your GP says you should see a hospital specialist for your condition

Labour’s new Single Point of Access now decides whether that GP referral goes through

They have a target to "redirect" 25% of referrals

I wanted to know: who is making that decision?

I asked the Minister 👇

[Dr Haseena Wazir @DrHWazir]

@MancAce We didn’t reject the 1,000 places Kaiser.

The Government chose to take them off the table unilaterally. Either we need those NHS training jobs or we don’t.

Hope that’s helpful!

[Dr Haseena Wazir @DrHWazir]

Wes Streeting and Keir Starmer have made their choice.

They chose to remove 1,000 extra GP and Consultant training jobs.

They chose to take 1,000 extra NHS specialists out of the pipeline, who could help cut waiting lists faster.

That is this Labour Government’s choice.

[Dr Claire McGonagle @csmcgo]

@Matt_Pinner Turnip or swede

[Artur Nadolny @ArturNadol7566]

NHS NURSE FILED 13 SAFETY WARNINGS. A PATIENT DIED.

Linda Fairhall spent 40 years in the @NHS without a single blemish on her record. She managed a team of 50 district nurses at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust (@NteesHpoolNHSFT).

Praised by the Care Quality Commission for her leadership. Exactly the kind of nurse you want running a department.

Then she noticed something dangerous.

A new policy landed in 2015 requiring district nurses to monitor patients taking prescribed medication. Nobody added extra staff.

The result was 1,000 extra home visits a month on the same stretched team.

Linda filed a safety concern. Then another. Then another. Thirteen in total, each one warning that patients and staff were at serious risk.
Nobody acted.

In October 2016, a patient died. Linda said it could have been prevented if management had listened.

That same month she told her manager she wanted to start the formal whistleblowing process.

She went on annual leave.
She came back to find she'd been suspended.

The grounds?

Vague allegations of bullying and gross misconduct. The tribunal later found that not a single specific allegation had ever been put to her.

The investigation was built on what the judge called "themes" and "perceptions" with no actual examples. She remained suspended for 18 months.

During those 18 months, Linda was still recovering from breast cancer. Her partner died of a heart attack. Her teenage son was unwell. The trust pressed on regardless.

She was sacked in April 2018.

The tribunal found the dismissal was materially influenced by her whistleblowing. Found the investigation inadequate and unreasonable. Found the trust could not genuinely have believed she was guilty of any misconduct.

The trust appealed. The Employment Appeal Tribunal dismissed it in 2021, calling the original findings "unimpeachable."

In May 2022, Linda was awarded £462,612. She will never work as a nurse again.
Forty years of service. Thirteen safety warnings. One preventable death. One destroyed life.

Sources: Hartlepool Mail | Personnel Today | Teesside Live / Gazette Live @TeessideLive | BBC North East | Nursing Times @NursingTimes | RCN Nursing Standard @theRCN | Patient Safety Learning

[Dr Luke Evans MP @drlukeevans]

The Labour Government has fundamentally changed the way patients access a specialist.

It mandates that GP referrals HAVE to go through a filtering process with an explicit aim to divert many of them.

This isn’t NHS reform. It’s rationing by another name.

An explainer🧵

1/16

[Dr Steve Taylor @DrSteveTaylor]

Just look how hard it has become for Resident Doctors to enter training programmes year on year @wesstreeting wants to use this as leverage

65% fall to 25%

Let’s call it blackmail

Also let’s call it for what it is political suicide & destruction of the #NHS

[Neena Jha @DrNeenaJha]

“Moaning minnies”
“Juvenile delinquents”
“Organ grinder”
“Monkeys”

Just a few e.g. of the vile language @wesstreeting has used to publicly insult resident & senior doctors

Dear Wes - here’s a reminder of the NHS workplace bullying criteria…it seems you’re ticking a few boxes