Dr Steve Taylor was speaking on LBC after the BMA announced the government had ‘made a new offer’ at the last minute which it would put to its members for a vote.

Dr Taylor said: “It’s about who’s in charge and how they are listening.

“It seems to me that when Wes Streeting was in charge, he wasn’t listening anymore and it became a challenge for the BMA to have conversations.

“They’ve now had a conversation with somebody new and managed to get something done.”

Change in health secretary

He added: “It’s possible that the change in health secretary has made a difference. We know that happens a lot.”

Dr Taylor described the agreement as ‘a compromise’ and said he hopes it’s acceptable to both sides.

He said: “It was always a negotiation. It was always a compromise, but from what I’ve read, it seems to fit both sides okay.

“I think it’s going to be good for us as taxpayers and good for resident doctors.”

Rewarded

He added: “We don’t want any strikes. We want people to be working hard in the NHS and being rewarded well for what they do.”

Listen to Dr Taylor’s interview on LBC in full on the DAUK Instagram.

We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give frontline workers a voice to be heard.

Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder.

Dr Steve Taylor argued for a more independent, expert-led system to determine the country’s healthcare needs.

He was speaking to Nick Ferrari on LBC radio during a discussion on the ongoing Covid Inquiry.

Covid Inquiry

The inquiry’s third report, which was published on Thursday, said that the NHS was on the brink of collapse during the pandemic. It said the health service only survived thanks to the ‘superhuman’ efforts of healthcare workers.

The Rt Hon. the Baroness Hallett DBE, the inquiry chair, said: “The UK entered the Covid-19 pandemic ill-prepared and with its healthcare systems in a parlous state, with severe workforce shortages, an ageing hospital estate, low numbers of hospital beds and high bed occupancy rates.

“It is unsurprising therefore that the impact on the healthcare systems of the four nations was devastating.”

Austerity

Commenting on the report, Dr Taylor said austerity and a decade of underinvestment in the NHS had left it woefully underprepared for the pandemic.

He said: “I don’t honestly think the NHS should be left in the hands of politicians.

“If we take Germany as an example, they have a council of 38 members that basically decides the health needs for the nation.

“It passes that information to the politicians and says you’ve got to raise the money.

Health policy

“Effectively, we’ve got the government deciding health policy rather than scientists and doctors and those that might know what’s needed.”

Listen to Dr Taylor’s interview on the DAUK Instagram.

Read the latest report from the Covid Inquiry.

CATA (Covid Airborne Transmission Alliance), of which DAUK is a member, is a core participant at the inquiry.

It issued a press release ahead of the publication of the Covid-19 Inquiry’s module 3 report.

We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give frontline workers a voice to be heard.

Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder.

Dr Taylor, DAUK’s GP co-lead, said tight NHS rules were preventing wider use of the drugs and not a reluctance by family doctors to prescribe them.

He was responding to media reports ahead of the publication of the new contract, that GP practices in England were to be paid an average of £3,000 a year in bonuses to prescribe Mounjaro.

Speaking to Tom Swarbrick on LBC, Dr Taylor said the incentive payments were a distraction from an ‘appalling’ deal for general practice.

He said: “I don’t need any incentive to prescribe Mounjaro.

“The problem is that the access to it is limited by the NHS.

“I can only prescribe it if you’re morbidly obese and you’ve got four clinical conditions.

“I thought why is this part of the GB contract? And then I read the GP contract a bit later on, and I realised this is just a smokescreen because, actually, the GP contract is appalling.”

The Government has announced £485 million in extra funding for general practice.

However, after adjusting for inflation, this is worth around £85 million, Dr Taylor said.

He told LBC listeners: “So we’re getting an extra £1.50 per patient for this next year.

“And then this was this news story was leaked out before the contract this afternoon, and I realised this is all politics.

“This is to make GPs look awful. That we are not prescribing Mounjaro to obese patients. Absolute rubbish,” he added.

Listen to Dr Taylor’s interview in full on DAUK’s Instagram.

We are a non-profit campaigning and lobbying organisation led by frontline doctors, for frontline doctors. We are volunteers and our collective aim is to give frontline workers a voice to be heard.

Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder.

Mental health provision

The survey also found that 640 GPs felt the provision for children with mental health issues in their area was not good enough. Some 508 GPs felt the same about adult provision. Dr Shire spoke to BBC News and LBC about the results. She told the BBC: “It’s not a surprise to anybody that the number of people seeking help for mental health conditions has increased. “There’s been an increase in mental health conditions since Covid.

Anxiety and depression

“Quite a lot of people said the first time they experienced anxiety or depression was during the pandemic. “I think we need to celebrate the fact people feel able to ask for help, rather than criticising them for asking for help. “And then look at why they are asking for help and what help is available for them?” Asked whether neurodivergent conditions such as ADHD were over-diagnosed, Dr Shire said it was more likely that diagnosis was ‘catching up’ with the number of neurodivergent people. She said: “Adults, especially, often can’t access reasonable adjustments in the workplace, or help and support without a diagnosis.

Support people

“There’s no availability for things like CBT and coaching. They are mentioned in the NICE guidelines as a way to support people with ADHD, but they can’t get access to that unless they’ve got this diagnosis. “(Being diagnosed can be) very validating for somebody to understand why they’ve struggled, or why they’re struggling. Is it just me, or is it something else?” Watch Dr Shire’s BBC News interview again on the DAUK Instagram. In an interview with LBC, Dr Shire stressed the need to avoid stigmatising people who seek help for their mental health. She said: “Life is difficult at the moment.

Struggling

“If you’re struggling to find work, you can’t afford food, then you’re not going to feel great about things. “I think it’s about looking at what support is available.” Dr Shire highlighted the lack of timely access to talking therapies, with long waits leaving many people getting worse before treatment begins. In response to a question about people not working because of their mental health, she said that, if someone was able to, then working could be helpful in recovery from any health condition.

Bigger picture

She added ‘people needed to be supported to work’, including being allowed time off to attend medical and therapy appointments. “We need to look at the bigger picture,” she said. “Why are people coming forward and how can we help them?” Listen again to her LBC interview on the DAUK Instagram. The most recent NHS survey on mental health showed more people have common mental health conditions now, with a 45% increase since 1993. It found that and 20% of NHS activity is related to mental health.

Mental health funding

However, mental health services only received 8.7% of the NHS budget in 2024/25. This is set to fall in 2025/26. Dr Shire said: “Without adequate funding and support for people, it’s hard to see how we can expect people to overcome their mental health conditions.” All of our committee members are volunteers. They speak to the media and campaign on the issues facing doctors in their own time. Please support their work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe.

Employ more GPs

However, without employing more GPs and creating more appointments, the change has simply opened up an additional avenue for requesting an appointment. “Online forms are not appointments,” Dr Taylor said. Dr Taylor posted on social media highlighting that two practices recently visited by Mr Kinnock had temporarily switched off their online consultation systems early. One was at 6pm, and another stopped requests after 4.30pm, except for administrative queries.

BMA safeguards

Both were examples of safeguards recommended by the BMA, he said, but would put the surgeries in breach of the GP contract. Dr Taylor told LBC listeners most practices were doing ‘pretty well’ in delivering online access. He added that the profession wanted to offer an even better service, but was limited by a shortage of GPs. “GPs want to provide excellent access for their patients,” Dr Taylor said. “But the reality is that we’ve got too much demand and not enough GPs.”

GP appointments

General practice delivered around 40 million appointments in the last month alone, equivalent to two-thirds of the population, Dr Taylor said. But he added that many patients still struggled to book an appointment, particularly those who found digital systems difficult to navigate. “Around 25% of the population find online routes challenging or can’t use them at all,” he said. “Practices work hard to ensure phone lines and walk-ins are available, but without enough GPs, demand will always outstrip supply.”

Health Secretary

Asked how people who work in the NHS view Mr Streeting, Dr Taylor said many felt unheard by him. “I think we’re all a bit unhappy with him,” Dr Taylor said. “He talks well and is very amenable on breakfast shows and TV interviews. “But there’s a feeling he’s pushing through his way without listening to those on the ground.” “GPs are doing an amazing job under immense pressure. What we’re asking for is the resources to do it properly.” Listen again to Dr Taylor and Mr Streeting on LBC via the DAUK Instagram. All of our committee members are volunteers. They speak to the media and campaign on the issues facing doctors in their own time. Please support their work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe.

Listen to the Interview here

NHS staff who argue the vaccine rollout has nothing to do with the lifting of lockdown restrictions “need to go on another educational course”, the Chair of the Doctors’ Association has told LBC.

Dr Jenny Vaughan made the remark to LBC’s Shelagh Fogarty after the subject of anti-lockdown protesters gathering in central London this weekend came up during their exchange.

Shelagh said: “There were some people in that rally claiming to be NHS workers [and] nurses too afraid to speak up about fears about vaccines.

She then Dr Vaughan: “What do you say to any NHS colleagues who share those views [and] who go on those marches?”

Dr Vaughan told Shelagh: “The truth is that the reason that we have been able to cautiously emerge from lockdown is that the vaccine has predominantly been delivered to over 80s and is now coming down all the other age groups and that we haven’t got the pressure on the NHS beds that we had.

“If anyone is strongly trying to argue that that’s nothing to do with the [vaccine] and they are an NHS staff [member] then they need to go on another educational course. They really do.

“The vaccine has delivered. But, in addition to that, so have people observing the lockdown.

“And that’s why we must continue to be very cautious with easing the lockdown. We absolutely must observe the social distancing and all the rules.”

In response to Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s statement regarding his unlawful management of PPE during the pandemic: ‘I won’t apologise because to apologise would imply that I’d do something differently’ DAUK’s Dr Katie Sanderson spoke out:

This is a pandemic not an election

How are we going to learn from this if we can’t be honest about what happened? It’s grossly offensive to the families of healthcare workers who got COVID and died, and I think it should be retracted immediately. 

Can you imagine what it feels like if you are the son or daughter of a doctor who died after getting COVID at work to hear that?

Dr Katie Sanderson – LBC Radio

38% of doctors who should have had FFP3 masks were saying they didn’t have them
47% saying they did not have access to long sleeved gowns 
>20% didn’t have eye protection
>60% had not been fit tested, so even if they had an FFP3 mask, it may not be protecting them because it may not have fitted 

“None of this is normal in the NHS. At our trust, we have three times the level of ICU patients that we had at the same time last year. We have converted several floors of our hospital to intensive care. We have redeployed multiple members of staff consultants…people from all specialties have been redeployed in the roles that they don’t normally fulfil”

“There is an immediate, short, medium and long term consequence that needs to be looked at. The immediate term consequence is our ridiculously high numbers of coronavirus cases that’s going on at the moment. Our short term goal is vaccination to try and drive that down…and our long term is to deal with our ballooning waiting lists and our mental health crisis”.

He also went on to respond to comments made by a senior MP earlier this week:

“This is basically a crisis situation…I would hope that an elected member of parliament who has people dying in his constituency would help to acknowledge that””It is not an admission of defeat to accept that one was wrong in making comments in the past…that is something which is difficult to do in politics, but unfortunately it is necessary to do in health. Otherwise we don’t learn from our mistakes. And if we do not learn from our mistakes in a pandemic situation, people die.”