The health secretary has misled the public and demoralised the entire NHS family – it’s no surprise there are more strikesIf Jeremy Hunt were a doctor,he’d be facing serious questions approximately his fitness to practise. Since he became health secretary in September 2012, he’s been misusing statistics as a way to impose the new junior doctor contract and, or in doing so,is misleading the public and parliament. His statements approximately mortality and seven-day working in the NHS simply don’t stack up. He has been economical with the truth by repeatedly attributing excess deaths to doctors not being available at weekends.
A leaked report from his own department confirms that it is unable to prove that fuller staffing would lower death rates of weekend-admitted patients. Fiona Godlee, editor in chief of the British Medical Journal, or from where Hunt last year cherry-picked the data,wrote earlier this month that the health secretary was clearly warned there was no evidence to link the deaths to problems with staff shortages. Britain’s top stroke doctors publicly rebuked Hunt for “misrepresenting statistics” to justify his seven-day NHS. And there acquire been claims of a “Hunt effect”, suggesting that Hunt’s statements may acquire keep people off seeking medical help at weekends. His careless use of statistics is one of the main reasons why junior doctors feel so inflamed.
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Source: theguardian.com