Doctors Supporting Doctors
Wednesday, 10 February 2016 - Reported by Marcus
Peter Capaldi and Sir John Hurt have both lent their support to the #WearYourNHS campaign, set up to raise awareness of the issues and challenges facing the NHS at present. The actors are pictured wearing a 'Support Junior Doctors' tshirt, designed by fashion icon Dame Vivienne Westwood. The #WearYourNHS Campaign, spearheaded by Dr Lauren Gavaghan, a Senior Registrar in Psychiatry in London, was started as a means to open up the issue of the Junior Doctors Contract negotiations to the public.
Junior Doctors, working for the NHS in England, have today been taking part in their second one day strike, in protest at changes proposed to their contracts by the Government. The management insist the changes are needed to provide a seven day health service in the future. The Junior Doctors are worried that the changes will spread overworked staff even more thinly and jeopardize patient health.
The #WearYourNHS campaign is a play on the words We Are Your NHS. Gavaghan wanted to encourage people to start thinking about the NHS as they might a shirt worn on their backs, something they may take for granted and only miss if it were gone one day.
This latest stage of the campaign sees Capaldi taking part in a session with photographer Sarah Sheldrake. The pictures show THE Dr and 20 ‘Junior’ Doctors, all from a range of medical specialities including A&E/Emergency Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Paediatric Anaesthetics, GP, Rheumatology, Acute General Medicine, Intensive Care, and Psychiatry, some senior in their specialities.
On why he was supporting Junior Doctors, Capaldi just said
It’s a Matter of Trust
The Twelfth Doctor was joined by the War Doctor in the photoshoot, with veteran actor Sir John Hurt taking part. Hurt was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2015, and is now doing well following treatment. On why he chose to support Junior Doctors he said The most important thing is that they (doctors) are not to be mistrusted. They do not do this for fun. (go on strike). It is about medicine. Medicine shouldn’t be anything to do with politics at all. Politics should be bending over backwards to support medicine.
Speaking as to why she organised the campaign, Dr Lauren Gavaghan said The photoshoot with Peter Capaldi and 20 Junior Doctors was to highlight some of our struggles. We feel as though we are up against a well-oiled propaganda machine, and that much of the time we are silenced, gagged and prevented from speaking in more than mere sound bites.
The photographs also illustrate something of what it is like to be silenced, to be gagged, with some of the doctors seen wearing surgical masks to demonstrate this point. Some have their hands tied with stethoscopes, in an effort to show the pain involved in feeling as though ones hands are literally tied, whilst the government continues to peddle lies.
Full details on the campaign websiteThe photographs also illustrate something of what it is like to be silenced, to be gagged, with some of the doctors seen wearing surgical masks to demonstrate this point. Some have their hands tied with stethoscopes, in an effort to show the pain involved in feeling as though ones hands are literally tied, whilst the government continues to peddle lies.
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