Campaigner Peter Stefanovic has lashed out at a Tory minister for talking “bullshit” about the state of the NHS – and the BBC for letting his remarks go unchallenged.
On BBC Breakfast on Thursday morning, presenter Naga Munchetty asked Edward Argar about the severity of NHS staff shortages – who responded that it was “very difficult” to make an “objective assessment”.
“The NHS workforce in England is in crisis. NHS hospitals, mental health services, community providers are reporting staggering shortages of more than 90,000 full-time staff,” filmmaker Peter Stefanovic said, adding: “How can the health minister not know that? Why was this readily available information not pointed out to viewers?”
Argar also claimed the Tories had created jobs for 4,000 doctors – and will employ a further 50,000 nurses by the next election.
But Stefanovic said the British Medical Association has warned that the NHS in England is short of 50,000 doctors – pointed out that Boris Johnson recently admitted that just 31,000 of the promised nurses will be new.
Stefanovic added: “The number of doctors in England has fallen to 2.8 doctors per 1,000 people which is lower than the EU average of 3.7.
“The latest data shows the number of primary and secondary care doctors are falling. And there are almost 2,000 fewer full-time GPs now than in 2015.
“And this is as we enter one of the worst winters on record.”
Earlier this month, The Guardian reported that the NHS is struggling with staff shortages, with NHS Providers deputy chief executive Saffron Cordery saying the shortages have been ongoing for years, but are now “exacerbated by Brexit”.
And Shelley Pearce, an A&E nurse, said her fellow colleagues from Europe “endured abuse from some members of the public after the Brexit referendum”.
“I can quite understand why some made a decision to go home because they didn’t seem to be wanted,” she told the newspaper.
In August, Stefanovic also challenged Rishi Sunak’s claim that the Tories will contribute “50,000 more nurses, 20,000 more police officers and 40 new hospitals”.
Stefanovic said at the time: “There won’t be 20,000 more police officers until you replace the 21,000 police officers you’ve cut from our streets since 2010.
“And whilst we’re at it, how about replacing the 23,000 police support staff you’ve cut? And reopening the 600 police stations you’ve closed?”
He added: “Before the pandemic, the Conservative government have been responsible for a decade of wage stagnation, rising inequalities, soaring child poverty, soaring in-work poverty.
“Real annual ages were £800 a year lower than in 2010. We’ve literally had the worst decade of wage growth since the Napoleonic War.”
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