{"id":20727,"date":"2020-04-14T08:38:09","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T07:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=20727"},"modified":"2020-04-14T16:35:21","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T15:35:21","slug":"an-army-with-no-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=20727","title":{"rendered":"‘An army with no general’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Our country is on course to suffer the greatest loss of life\u00c2\u00a0to the\u00c2\u00a0corona virus in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We’re a nation in shock – but we’re also a nation without a clear lead on how we protect the NHS heroes battling to save us from this invisible killer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Over the weekend, two Oxford\u00c2\u00a0hospital porters\u00c2\u00a0tragically\u00c2\u00a0joined the roll call of the dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00c2\u00a0Matt Hancock’s insinuation\u00c2\u00a0that NHS front\u00c2\u00a0line staff were being\u00c2\u00a0fast and loose with PPE caused jaws to drop and anger to rise across the country.\u00c2\u00a0 Priti Patel’s non-apology\u00c2\u00a0only\u00c2\u00a0added insult to injury.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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NHS workers are\u00c2\u00a0putting their lives on the line to keep us safe from this dreadful disease.\u00c2\u00a0 Fifteen hour shifts, six days at least a week, in gruelling and traumatic conditions.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Unite member, Ellen, a nurse, says the health secretary’s comments may actually be\u00c2\u00a0dangerous.\u00c2\u00a0 Health care staff should not be expected to have to think twice about staying safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Quite frankly, nurses and doctors -\u00c2\u00a0and workers at risk anywhere for that matter\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0-\u00c2\u00a0should able to decide their PPE needs\u00c2\u00a0without unhelpful comments from a far away minister.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00c2\u00a0The government should be totally engaged, sleeves rolled up in the procurement, production and supply of PPE to frontline workers.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead we have mixed messages and no central\u00c2\u00a0leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Unite has been proud to work with employers and individuals around the country to create a volunteer `army’ to manufacture the millions of pieces of protective kit so desperately needed in\u00c2\u00a0our hospitals, warehouses, garages and factories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But this is an army with no general.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From the tailor in Glasgow making scrubs for the NHS to Unite members in Airbus building ventilators for those with breathing difficulties, there are hundreds of people working around the clock to meet health care needs.
But they’re doing this without any government leadership.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I’ve spoken to businesses\u00c2\u00a0who say that governments in other countries snatch their hands off when they offer the needed equipment. Yet\u00c2\u00a0when they try to speak to our\u00c2\u00a0government, their calls just go into a black hole.\u00c2\u00a0 People are even\u00c2\u00a0paying for the raw materials themselves so they can do their bit to make the kit to keep people safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is not good enough.\u00c2\u00a0 This is no time to `leave it to the market’.\u00c2\u00a0 The protection of life comes before whatever political beliefs a government may hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That is why Unite is calling for\u00c2\u00a0a Minister for PPE and Testing, responsible to the PM, to knock\u00c2\u00a0the government machine into shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Given that\u00c2\u00a0the health secretary has been\u00c2\u00a0slammed by all the health professionals for his comments, this task has to be given to an independent minister – with the funds and clout to deliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is one other demand that Unite is making and it’s this; it’s time now for an inquiry into the government’s approach to the provision of PPE and testing.\u00c2\u00a0 Why are we still not testing at the same rate as other nations?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Twenty-one NHS workers, fourteen transport workers, and who knows how many more front line\u00c2\u00a0workers across the economy have lost their lives in recent days.\u00c2\u00a0 In their honour, this country now has to ask the tough questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lessons must be learned and improvements made so that our nation,\u00c2\u00a0the sixth biggest economy on the planet, is never again\u00c2\u00a0falling short when it comes to the protection of its people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • This comment by Steve Turner, Unite assistant general secretary<\/em><\/strong>, first appeared in the Mirror on April 14. <\/em><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Our country is on course to suffer the greatest loss of life\u00c2\u00a0to the\u00c2\u00a0corona virus in Europe. We’re a nation in shock – but we’re also a nation without a clear lead on how we protect the NHS heroes battling to save us from this invisible killer. \u00c2\u00a0Over the weekend, two Oxford\u00c2\u00a0hospital porters\u00c2\u00a0tragically\u00c2\u00a0joined the roll call […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19046,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,1308],"tags":[1295,1316],"wps_subtitle":"Unite AGS Steve Turner: we need leadership on PPE for frontline workers","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20727"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20727"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20733,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20727\/revisions\/20733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}