#ImInWorkJeremy

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has been slammed for his out of touch approach to the NHS.

Not only was he the man who vetoed a paltry 1 per cent pay rise by the pay review body meaning nurses and doctors have suffered years of pay freezes, but in the past week he has ratcheted up his campaign and his attacks on hardworking staff.

Last week Jeremy Hunt announced that he wanted NHS consultants to work weekends, and in doing so he outlined his plans for a ‘supposed’ seven-day NHS.

But those plans are already a reality. And over the weekend the hapless health secretary was taken to task.

While he tweeted a picture of himself on the wards (taken on Friday and betraying patient confidentiality), scores of NHS staff – all on duty over the weekend – tweeted pictures of themselves at work, on hospital wards, tending to people (while making sure to secure patient confidentiality) and generally working hard to make sure patients were looked after.

And soon enough the hashtag ‘#ImInWorkJeremy’ was trending on Twitter with thousands of people highlighting how they keep the NHS going 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

And the controversy didn’t stop there, the government’s attitude to the NHS was taken to task by Dr Janis Burns, who works at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust.

After her weekend shift Dr Burns wrote an open letter to the prime minister challenging him over Hunt’s approach to the NHS: On Facebook she said, “For your information I was working from 20:00 to 09:00 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday i.e. I was part of the team that provided a 24 hour, 7 days a week, 365 days a year service … your irresponsible colleague Jeremy Hunt seems hell bent on suggesting to the public that there is no 7 day a week service and that consultants do not work weekends.”

That message has been shared almost 100,000 times, but is the government listening?

Sadly no. Because as Janis handed the letter to the police guarding the prime minister’s London residence, she was told to put it in a postbox instead.

As ever, the Tory approach to public services is out of sight and out of mind.

Sadly for prime minister David Cameron and his hapless health secretary Jeremy Hunt, social media has proved that they can’t hide the reality.

The ‘#ImInWorkJeremy’ hashtag shows the NHS is already a seven day service, and that the government seems focused on running the NHS down rather than praising the service and the staff for their hard work day in day out.

But Cameron and Hunt have been warned, if they won’t listen to staff, patients and people, then they’ll share the message on social media, for Hunt et al there’s now nowhere to hide…