How to kill the NHS | Rebecca Jane column

Last year we were out on our doorsteps clapping for NHS workers every Thursday.

You visit Blackburn Hospital today and there’s still an enormous sign at the entrance saying ‘thank you NHS’.

Yeah, well, our government is now ‘thanking you’ by telling you exactly what to do with your body.

Taking away your ability to think for yourself and forgetting you’re a human adult with a brain to make decisions that are best for you.

Furthermore, the government is fully aware that a number of people will decide to quit the NHS, following this decision. Do they care? No. Are they still saying ‘thank you for all your hard work during Covid-19, putting yourself in harm's way to help our citizens.

Literally risking your life on a daily basis?’. No, they’re not. The message our government is sending out this week is that, ‘if you don’t like it, clear off and work elsewhere’.

Exactly what our country needs, people walking out of the NHS in droves. It’s not like we are understaffed, maternity units crying out for new midwives, babies and mothers being put in danger due to staff shortages.

Planned surgery waiting lists are longer than ever, cancer and other ‘end of life’ patients being put on waiting lists that they simply can’t afford to be on.

Suicidal rates through the roof, counselling waiting lists of over nine months… Did our government miss the memo that we need MORE hands to the pump to help our nation, rather than a mass walk out? Are our ministers even living in the same world as the general population?

Our government KNOW there will be around 73,000 vacancies due to their demand for vaccinations. Since when can our country afford to lose 70,000 NHS staff? Do they care? No. They’re potentially killing off the NHS in one direct hit.

90% of NHS staff are double vaccinated now. Leave the rest be. They clearly have serious concerns about vaccination and why should their voices not be heard?

EVERY voice is an important voice.

Those poor souls are being bulldozed and bullied into silence, and where does it end?

If our government is demanding key staff need vaccination, holding them to ransom forcing them into giving up their livelihoods, years spent training, thousands of pounds in education fees, blood, sweat and countless tears - WHERE does this end? What comes next? How many more demands are our government allowed to make on the general public?

To all the NHS and care home staff who are facing this horrific predicament, I may only be one person and my opinion doesn’t count for much. All I want to say is:

I and many others do stand by you. Your hard work, not only in the last two years, but through the course of your careers has very much been seen, appreciated and wholeheartedly valued. It may not feel like that right now with the decision you’re being forced to make, but it truly is.

I and many others will feel desperately sad for what you are currently facing, standing up for your human rights or losing a career you have worked probably most of your life for. I see it, and others will too.