EDITORIAL

the first covid lockdown of March 2020 thrust all of you into the national spotlight. Industrial action, impossibly long waitlists, utter confusion around workforce, influenza and the mental and physical exhaustion of what you have all had to endure means that the stagnant fug continues to suffocate.

I raise my hat to every one of you who has been obliged to get out from under your duvet every day and, grimacing, come to deliver your best in your place of work despite these circumstances. I have seen and heard at first hand the angry testimonies from many of you about what you feel is the legacy of years of bombast, thoughtlessness and political expediency from those who preside over government policy. Factor in the senselessness of regulatory inspection and I am amazed that we have a workforce at all!

There is, of course, a chink of light. The light is called hope and it is worthy of our coaxing and nurture. So here is my hope for the Spring season as applied to health and social care. I hope that:-

• A workforce plan worthy of the definition emerges from the Chancellor’s office and is good enough to address long term decline.

• All parties connected to the current wave of strikes reflect on the futility of silence and the harm that stand-offs do to those whom we are privileged to care for.

• Our social care innovators’ People Plan for Social Care receives the attention that it deserves in the corridors of power and the united support of all those who care.

• Bullying and intimidation as components of leadership are consigned to the bin and that those who perpetrate such behaviour follow.

• How we regulate and ensure quality across health and social care is the subject of an open, honest and evidence-based discussion to redesign our approach.

There we are, there’s my 5 ‘hopes’ –chinks of light all and, with my last breath, I’ll advocate for all of them. Will you join me?

Please enjoy this new issue of The Loop.