Government fails to detail how retired doctors plan will work for coronavirus

[Northerner]

The government is under pressure to spell out how it will use retired doctors to help tackle the coronavirus after ministers failed to provide any detail about how the scheme would work.

Questions are being asked about the widely reported NHS initiative, which was included in the government’s coronavirus action plan that Boris Johnson launched last week.

But the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) did not flesh out any of the detail about how it would resolve the complexities of launching the scheme when quizzed by an ex-health minister.

The Conservative MP Dr Dan Poulter last week tabled a parliamentary question to Matt Hancock, the health secretary, asking “what steps the government is taking to ensure that retired medical staff will be (a) re-registered and (b) re-certified to practise in the event that they are required to work as a result of Covid-19”.

But in a reply published on Monday, the DHSC said only that it “has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.”

Government fails to detail how retired doctors plan will work for coronavirus

Department of Health does not answer how staff will be re-registered to fight spread of disease

www.theguardian.com

 

[grovesy]

I heard the Cheif Medical Officer say it may have been in the Commons Committee meeting last week ,. Say it would only be those who had retired in the last 3 years. The reason being it would be less of a problem to reregister. He also said it would not be compulsory.

 

[atoll]

sounds like death toll will be directly linked to the amount of oxygen respirators and intubation kits the NHS has available,so extra doctors are probably superflous