Latest news with #healthcare workers
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
‘It's falling apart around my ears': a resident doctor on why he is striking
I think it's fair to say that since 2019 it's been a difficult time in the medical profession. Before Covid hit, we were already having reports of mass burnouts, there was already low staffing, people already leaving for Australia. Covid then obviously had a significant impact on everyone, not just doctors – nurses, healthcare workers, and patients. Most of all, after that, we've then had the issues of the pay erosion since 2008, and low staffing, as people know that they can get better terms, conditions and pay in other countries. So in terms of my day-to-day life, I am seeing the impact an NHS, which hasn't kept its staff and hasn't supported its staff, is having an impact on patients every day. I can make a big difference, but I'm in a system that hasn't supported its doctors or nurses or healthcare workers for years, and now it's falling apart around my ears, so my day-to-day life is disheartening, I think would be the nicest way to put it. If I see somebody and I know that they have an issue that might be solved, I have to tell them they're going to have to live with it for 18 months because we haven't trained enough people to even get the waiting lists down. This month, I'm paying £462 for the GMC [General Medical Council], which is the regulator, my exams cost £500 a pop. Some people's exams cost way more, just to stay in training and keep going. And there have been times where it's been difficult to afford it. The F1s [first year doctors] are the ones who are in the most financial issue, because they've just finished medical school, where they will have accrued up to or and above £100,000 in debt. They are then working the first month and they get paid right at the end of it, so they are in dire straits financially at that point, and for that first year, they're only paid £18.62 an hour. I know F1s who are having to take out loans in order to cover their rent. I'm here because the government had the possibility of negotiating. They had the chance to make my life better, and they just keep kicking the can down the road, and at some point everyone needs to stand up and say: 'No, you were elected to make our lives better. You were elected to make everyone's lives better in this country.' And all that's happened is a stagnation. I feel now that the only way to get them to listen is to strike.' Dr Brocha Goode, 30, is a GP trainee in Wigan, Greater Manchester. He graduated from the University of Manchester medical school in 2019
Arab News
22-07-2025
- Health
- Arab News
Infanticide at the heart of Gaza genocide
With tens of Palestinian infants and children dying daily as a result of starvation — a direct outcome of a deliberate Israeli policy of denying more than 2 million Gazans unfettered access to food, water, baby formula, fuel and medication since March — the war on Gaza is entering its final stage: extermination or depopulation. The images of starving children are harrowing, but the world's inability to stop this human-made catastrophe is staggering and shameful. This multifarious tragedy is not the result of a natural disaster, but a war crime, a crime against humanity and a form of genocide that is a sanctioned Israeli government policy. It is indefensible. The extermination of Gazans, whether by constant Israeli bombardment of homes, schools, hospitals, places of worship, shelters and tent camps or through other means, is now normalized. The Israeli blockade is a matter of fact. The killing of more than 20,000 children since Oct. 7, 2023, is a mere statistic. More than 70,000 children under the age of five are at risk of acute malnutrition within the year if the blockade and conflict persist, according to the UN. Approximately 17,000 children are reported to be struggling with severe malnutrition amid medical shortages due to this engineered humanitarian crisis. Healthcare workers report that mothers are unable to breastfeed due to their malnutrition, forcing them to resort to unsafe feeding methods. Press reports speak of elderly Gazans dropping in the streets or at Israeli-run aid distribution centers, which have become death traps, claiming the lives of more than 1,000 people in the past two months. Children have become an easy target at these centers, which are staffed by American and Israeli contractors. Western doctors who have served at the few remaining health centers and hospitals in Gaza speak of children sustaining bullet wounds in the head, torso, neck and legs. With UN aid agencies declaring that their storage facilities are now empty across the beleaguered Strip, the number of children dying as a result of starvation will only increase daily. But we are yet to see a serious move on behalf of the UN Security Council, the Trump administration, the EU or the UK to order Israel to stop the carnage and open the borders so that aid can flow into Gaza. Monday's statement by the UK, France and more than 20 other countries will do nothing unless it is backed by action. Israel is already facing genocide charges at the International Court of Justice. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister are wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. But the list of charges should not stop there. Israel is in clear and direct violation of a handful of international legal instruments that protect children in armed conflicts. These include the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which establishes fundamental protections for civilians, including children, during times of war. Israel is also in violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989, which is the world's most widely ratified human rights treaty. The UNSC has adopted several resolutions on this issue, particularly 1612 of 2005, which established monitoring and reporting mechanisms for grave violations against children in armed conflict. Israel's use of collective punishment against Palestinians is not new. It has resorted to such criminal acts in the past, both in Gaza and the West Bank. As of this month, Israeli forces have killed at least 204 Palestinian children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since Oct. 7, 2023, accounting for about 20 percent of all child fatalities in the West Bank since the year 2000. Despite growing condemnation by UN agencies and human rights organizations of Israel's weaponization of food and its use of starvation as a state policy, there are no signs that Israel is about to roll back its policy. It is not coming under enough pressure from Western governments, especially the US, to end its illegal blockade and let aid into Gaza. It is doubling down by expanding the areas under its military control, while doing nothing to address the spreading famine and deliberate starvation. It is moving ahead with the forced transfer of millions to Rafah, where it plans to build a concentration camp ahead of pushing Gazans to leave the Strip. On average, it is killing between 80 and 120 people daily, with the majority shot dead at food distribution centers under its control. Israel's sense of impunity is on the rise, even when its military declares that displacing people by force is a war crime. It does not have to defend itself when images of starving children in Gaza go viral on social media. That task is handed to US lawmakers and the White House, which waste no time in imposing sanctions on international courts and UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for opposing the ongoing genocide. While ceasefire talks in Doha are going nowhere, Netanyahu is using the stalemate to drive Gazans to the brink, to carry out their mass displacement. Even if a temporary truce is reached, there are no guarantees that Netanyahu will not resume the war, under false pretexts, to realize that final goal. There are two key considerations to take into account. One, the rebuilding of Gaza — a multibillion-dollar task that will take decades to achieve — is unlikely to happen. If and when the war does stop, there will be an endemic humanitarian crisis in Gaza that will keep the world busy for years. Many children will die of disease and malnutrition. Tens of thousands of surviving children will need physical and psychological treatment for years to come. There are thousands of amputees and orphans with no surviving relatives. With aid storage facilities now empty, the number of children dying as a result of starvation will only increase daily. Osama Al-Sharif More than half a million Gazan children have been without education for almost two years. What will happen to them, since more than 90 percent of Gaza's schools have been destroyed by Israel? The second point concerns accountability. Israeli crimes in Gaza do not expire by limitation. Any deal reached in Gaza should not affect the right of every Palestinian victim, dead or alive, to seek justice at the highest international level. Israel's impunity has already broken the world order and undermined international humanitarian law. Any attempt to provide Israel with a safety net or bailout must be prevented at all costs. That accountability should be extended to include all governments that have enabled Israel's genocide and infanticide in Gaza. Such accountability took place following the end of the Second World War, as Germany's war crimes were addressed. There is no reason for it not to happen again, this time with Israel facing its victims and accusers.
CTV News
17-07-2025
- Health
- CTV News
780 U.S. health-care workers apply in B.C.
Vancouver Watch Less than two months after the B.C. government launched a multi-million-dollar campaign to recruit American health-care workers, 780 applications have come in.
