Is resident doctors' pay down 20%, and aftermath of Gaza water queue strike
Date: 10:23 BST
Title: Are resident doctors right to say their pay is down 20%?
Content: Rupert CareyBBC Verify fact-check editor
We'll be looking into the claim by the doctors' union – the BMA – for higher pay for resident doctors in England.
The government has offered a 5% rise but the BMA says pay – in real terms (so allowing for the impact of inflation) - is down 20% since 2008 and has voted in favour of strike action.
There was an interesting discussion involving the BMA on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning about how they are getting to that figure and BBC Verify examining it.
Update:
Date: 10:14 BST
Title: Monday's BBC Verify Live
Content: Rob CorpBBC Verify Live editor
Welcome to the live page where the BBC Verify team shares what it is doing each day. Our team will post their fact-checks, open-source intelligence work and data journalism here.
This morning we're across these stories:
If you missed it then do check out our most-read story of the weekend - North Korea's Benidorm-style resort welcomes its first Russian tourists - by clicking here.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
I thought I was a drama queen because of how much I was affected by things that happened to other people... but then I discovered I had this little-known condition - and it's far more common than you'd think
Standing at a supermarket checkout, Juliet Owen-Nuttall felt a rising panic. Her heart was racing; she felt nauseous and weak to the point of needing to lean against the conveyor belt. But none of these symptoms occurred as a result of something that was happening to her. Instead, she found herself on the verge of a full-blown panic attack because the payment card belonging to the woman at the till, a stranger, had been declined.
Sky News
2 hours ago
- Sky News
Family of woman who died after misdiagnosis by 'substitute doctor' criticise govt review
Why you can trust Sky News The parents of a woman who died after her blood clot was misdiagnosed by someone who she thought was a doctor have called a government-ordered review "a missed opportunity". Marion and Brendan Chesterton have welcomed many of the recommendations in Professor Gillian Leng's review of the role that physician associates (PAs) perform in the NHS, but say "they don't go far enough". Emily died in November 2022 after suffering a pulmonary embolism. She went to see her GP twice in the weeks before her death - and on both occasions was seen by a physician associate who missed the blood clot and instead prescribed propranolol for anxiety. She had told her worried parents that she had been seen by a doctor, but she had not. Her father Brendan told Sky News: "If she come out and said I've seen someone called the physician's associate I'm sure we would have insisted that, you know, let's go back and insist that you see a doctor. She never knew." Now a government-ordered review led by Prof Leng, president of the Royal Society of Medicine, has recommended NHS physician associates should be banned from diagnosing patients who have not already had contact with a doctor for their illness. The report suggests a major change to the role of PAs after it acknowledged they have been used as substitutes for doctors, despite having significantly less training. More than 3,500 PAs and 100 anaesthesia associates (AAs) are working in the NHS and there have been previous calls for an expansion in their number. But a general lack of support for the roles from the medical profession - plus high-profile deaths of patients who were misdiagnosed by PAs - led Health Secretary Wes Streeting to order a review. Presenting her findings, Prof Leng said: "Crucially I'm recommending that PAs should not see undifferentiated or untriaged patients. "If (patients) are triaged, they (PAs) should be able to see adult patients with minor ailments in line with relevant guidance from the Royal College of GPs." She said more detail was needed on which patients can be seen by PAs and national clinical protocols should be developed in this area. She added: "Let's be clear, (the role of PAs) is working well in some places, but there indeed has been some substitution and any substitution is clearly risky and confusing for patients." Prof Leng also recommended PAs should be renamed "physician assistants" to position them "as a supportive, complementary member of the medical team" - and have standardised uniforms to distinguish them from doctors - while AAs should be renamed "physician assistants in anaesthesia". Newly qualified PAs should also work in hospitals for two years before they are allowed to work in GP surgeries or mental health trusts. The report said that while research suggests patients are satisfied after seeing a PA, some did not know they were not seeing a doctor. Prof Leng concluded there were "no convincing reasons to abolish the roles of AA or PA", but there is also no case "for continuing with the roles unchanged". She recommended that both PAs and AAs should have the opportunity for ongoing training and development, with potential to prescribe medicines in the future, and they should also have the opportunity to become an "advanced" PA or AA. Six patient deaths linked to contact with PAs have been recorded by coroners in England. Emily's mother Marion said some of the review's findings were significant and her daughter would still be alive if the recommendations had been in place when she fell ill. She said: "I think so, yes, which is so important, which is why we're so pleased that this review has been made." But Mrs Chesterton added that more could have done, including stopping all PAs from prescribing drugs. "We feel it's a missed opportunity. It could have gone all the way there and cleared things up totally. Our daughter died. She was prescribed a drug that she should not have been prescribed. And it had absolutely catastrophic circumstances. She died for goodness sake." The Chestertons' concerns are shared by the British Medical Association (BMA). Dr Emma Runswick, BMA's deputy chair, said: "It is definitely a problem that the roles of doctors and now physician assistants has been blurred and it's positive that their name is going to change, that there will be a uniform. "But whilst they continue to be deployed in a way that mimics doctors at the behest of any local employer decision, we have to have ongoing concerns about their safety." But UMAPs, the trade union which represents both PAs and AAs, has warned the changes will undermine their qualifications and their role, lengthen waiting lists and worsen the impact of any strike action. "By trying to placate them, at a time when they're striking - and they want their strikes to bite the hardest by taking us out of the workforce - we're now putting patients at risk," said Steve Nash, general secretary of UMAPs. "I think the biggest patient safety risk, out there right now, is the BMA," he added.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Plane passenger's life-saving allergy request sparks outrage as he's labelled 'selfish'
As someone with a severe nut allergy, Dan Kelly always has to be cautious when he's flying. In a video, posted to his TikTok account @_maycontain, Dan can be seen onboard an easyJet flight, asking the cabin crew whether it's okay to make an announcement to the whole plane to warn them the flight should be nut-free for his safety. In the clip, the flight attendant can be seen asking Dan whether he has an EpiPen - which he confirms he does - and where he's sat. Dan captioned the video: 'I love it when flight attendants understand straight away. 'Surely people can go without nuts for a few hours if it could save someone's life! 'Honestly, I don't understand why some people still don't take food allergies seriously. 'If it were you or your child living with a life-threatening allergy, you'd hope others would show a bit more empathy and recognise just how serious it really is!' But, while most people were very sympathetic towards Dan, he revealed the video 'caused quite a stir' and he received some very negative comments from 'a few small-minded people who seem to have nothing better to do than try to provoke a reaction'. View this post on Instagram A post shared by May Contain | Allergy Blog and Podcast 🎙️ (@_maycontain) One of the cruel comments was: 'I would make all people with allergies sit in a toilet the whole flight. So annoying as I love peanuts with my Gin and tonic.' Another added: 'One person shouldn't dictate what a plane load of people can and cannot eat.' A third nutty passenger agreed: 'I'd be the first to open up a packet of peanut m&ms. Just because I can!' And another troll wrote: 'I always eat Snickers on planes. Nobody tells me not to eat.' But Dan took these negative comments in his stride and said: 'I think it really highlights just how much misunderstanding still exists around allergies even if it's just a small group of people, the lack of seriousness in society is still very real.'
