Beyond the pandemic: a letter to my MP

I realise I have been very quiet throughout this pandemic. Partly that has been deliberate – not wanting to add my noise to all the many wise, witty, woeful and other opinions on Covid-19 and its impact. Partly it has been because I, too, have been trying to make some sense of it all. And partly it is just that I haven’t felt motivated to do so.

Anyway, today I wrote a letter to my MP, about some of the things that have been stirring in me as I look ahead to coming out of lockdown.

What do you think? Are these things we should be pushing for, and if so, how can we do so more effectively? I’d really like to hear others’ views.

…

Taiwo Owatemi, MP

House of Commons

Westminster

…

23 April 2020

Dear Taiwo

I hope you are keeping well and safe, and coping OK with all the new ways of working and additional demands placed on you by the pandemic and lockdown. Thank you for all you are doing locally to support our communities during this vulnerable time.

I have been impressed by the support that has been shown to our NHS workers and other essential workers during this time, and by the strong sense of community and caring for our neighbours that has emerged. At the same time, it seems to me that the pandemic has brought to the fore many of the inequalities in our society, and the failures of our current economic and political models to address these.

It is striking that, in response to the pandemic, the government has mobilised resources, invested in our public services, and taken on board policies that the Labour Party, the Green Party and others have been advocating for years.

As we look ahead to a time beyond the constraints of the lockdown, I am concerned that our government will focus solely on trying once again to boost our economy, falling back to old policies and ignoring the failures in these highlighted by the pandemic. We rely, therefore, on you and your fellow opposition MPs to hold the government to account and to push for better policies that will benefit all. I feel strongly that we need to be calling for these now, at an early stage before too many decisions are fixed. I would particularly encourage you to push for a change in policy in five areas:

That the government continues to invest strongly in the NHS and our other public services. As a paediatrician, I have seen first-hand, the damaging effects of years of austerity on our NHS. I have been deeply concerned at the way nurses, social workers, teachers and other public service workers have been devalued. It is all very well for the government to encourage people to clap for our nurses, and to give badges to our social workers, but this will only have any meaning if it is backed up by meaningful pay-rises that persist after the immediate situation, and a sustained investment in services to turn around the impact of high case-loads and stressful working conditions. And this needs to extend to all essential public service workers: we need to move away from the denigrating terminology of ‘the unskilled workforce’ and show that we value all those who keep our country going, not just during a crisis, but on an ongoing day-to-day basis.
That the government radically steps up its commitment to and investment in protecting our environment. In particular, that it should take this opportunity to adopt a green new deal. One of the unexpected benefits of the lockdown around the world has been an improvement in our environment, with cleaner air in cities, massive reductions in carbon outputs, and a recovery of some of our damaged biodiversity. It has shown what could be possible if we took the climate emergency as seriously as the Covid-19 emergency. Rather than reinvesting in environmentally-harmful big infrastructure projects such as a third Heathrow runway and HS2, in fossil fuels and industries that are heavily dependent on fossil fuels, we need our government to be investing in new green technologies and green jobs. The Conservatives were deeply inadequate in their commitments to the environment in their election manifesto; we need to call them out on this and to get them to commit to the kind of initiatives and the levels of investment that the Labour Party and others were calling for. In particular, having shown that it is possible, we should be pushing the government to commit to a net zero-carbon economy by 2030, not 2050.
That the government invests in and supports local businesses and small-scale enterprises. Following the 2008 financial crash, the government bailed out the banks, which were the cause of the problem, not those who had suffered as a result of it. Since then, the Conservative government has continued to give tax breaks to big multi-national corporations and to favour the wealthy. There are big companies and wealthy billionaires already calling for bail-outs and providing persuasive arguments as to why they need those. Unlike many smaller family-run businesses, these companies have the financial resilience to weather this storm. Sadly, though, and again unlike smaller businesses, it is the big companies and the wealthy who have the power to influence government. As we come through this crisis, we need our government to give ongoing and meaningful support to those who most need it. That is the only way we will see a sustained and worthwhile improvement in our society.
That the government seriously considers introducing a universal basic income. In spite of the government’s rhetoric, we have not all been in this crisis together, nor have we all been equally affected. It is the unemployed, those with unstable income, workers in the gig economy, single parents and other marginal groups who have been most affected, who don’t have the privilege of working from home, and who have not had the financial resilience to cope with several weeks or months of lockdown. It was clear, well before the Covid pandemic, that our benefits system is broken. This has been made even more obvious by the impact of the lockdown. We need to ensure that all in our country have the means of sustaining the essentials of life, including housing, food, heating and clothing, whatever individual or societal circumstances they may face, whether that is flooding, illness, disability or a loss of employment.
That the government commits to a sustained and increased level of support for overseas aid and development. Given the impact of this pandemic on our economy, I am sure there will be calls to protect our own and to leave other countries to deal with their problems. This would be a disaster. Whether or not the virus takes a strong hold in the low-income countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and South America, these countries will suffer far more than the wealthy West as a result of the global economic downturn. And it will be the poor in these countries who suffer most. The pandemic has demonstrated that we are a global community, and we can not afford to ignore the needs of our neighbours who do not have the same privileges we enjoy. There have been some in the Conservative Party who have called for a reduction in the 0.7% of GDP which goes to overseas aid and development. This cannot be allowed to happen. If anything, we should be increasing the proportion of our wealth which goes towards supporting those less well off than ourselves.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope you will be able to pick up on these points and find ways to raise them with the government.

Yours sincerely

July 13, 2018

Reflections on retirement 2: 35 years in the NHS

The NHS at 70

By the time I retire in September, if you include my years as a medical student and exclude my year abroad in Cambodia, I will have spent 35 years as part of the British National Health Service: exactly half the time it has been in existence.

What a privilege to have been able to serve in what I still believe to be one of the best health systems in the world. In a recent poll, readers of the BMJ voted “providing care based on need and free at the point of delivery” as the NHS’s greatest achievement in its 70 years (https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k2809). I fully agree. Having seen people in Cambodia die because they haven’t been able to access proper health care, and families go into irrecoverable debt to pay for worryingly poor hospital treatment, I am incredibly grateful for the care we receive from the nurses, doctors, cleaners, porters and all the other dedicated, hard-working staff I’ve had the privilege to work alongside.

“Illness is neither an indulgence for which people have to pay, nor an offence for which they should be penalised, but a misfortune the cost of which should be shared by the community” Aneurin Bevan.

There are, of course, countless other achievements of our national health service:

General practice as the foundation of care
Limiting commercial influence on patient care
Pioneering evidence-based practice
A comprehensive childhood vaccination programme
Free contraception for all women

To name but a few.

As one commentator put it though, ‘perhaps the NHS’s greatest achievement is its sheer survival’. In spite of political interference, budget freezes, almost constant reorganisations, rising public demand, and media criticism, the people who make up the NHS continue to offer a great service.

Survival and change

In the years that I’ve known it, the NHS has changed. Gone (I trust) are those days of traipsing down a ward with my fellow medical students in the wake of an arrogant surgeon who would then proceed to humiliate both us as students and the patients under his (invariably it was a he) care. Gone are those not-so-halcyon junior doctor days of being on call for upwards of 72 hours and struggling to keep our eyes open long enough to write out a prescription or calculate the fluid requirements of one of our patients. Gone (to a large extent) are those days of treating patients according to a consultant’s whim rather than following protocols based on sound evidence.

But I wonder whether, with some of that, we have also lost something of the heart of the NHS? Of the camaraderie of those evenings on call, where we would linger with the nurses over a cup of hot chocolate on the children’s ward; of the small cottage hospitals where everyone called each other by their first name; of the sense of fulfilment when you had cared for a patient right through from their initial clerking in the emergency department to writing (by hand) their discharge letter as they walked out once more happy and healthy; of the art as well as the science of medicine?

Who knows?

Whatever the changes, and whatever may lie ahead for the NHS, as I retire from it, I feel incredibly proud and grateful to have been a part of what it is.

June 30, 2018

Reflections on retirement 1

A new stage in life

So, it is finally happening. In three months’ time I will be retiring. So I thought it would be a good opportunity to reflect on what this is like; what it means for me; my experiences of 31 years in the NHS, 21 years as a consultant paediatrician and 13 years in academia; and on what lies ahead for this next stage of my life.

Pausing to contemplate this recently, it felt to me that this wasn’t so much retiring from work as moving on to a new stage in life, developing further my unique sense of calling or vocation, and embracing new opportunities, freed from some of the constraints of paid employment.

I do feel privileged to have been able to pursue a career in paediatrics and more recently academic child health, and to have worked in what remains one of the best health institutions in the world. It has been a great blessing to have built up expertise in a field I enjoy and feel passionately about, and to be able to use some of that expertise for children and families. And now it feels even more of a privilege and blessing to be able to retire from paid employment and develop further in these and other areas.

What am I on the planet for?

One of Lois’ favourite questions as a spiritual director is ‘what are you uniquely here on the planet for?’ As I reflected on this recently at a Retreat Association conference in Derbyshire, it seemed to me that the answer to this revolved around two core motivations which are working out in three key areas of my life.

Belovedness

The first core motivation revolves around a deepening sense of my own belovedness: recognising myself as a beloved child of God, unique, valued, and (in spite of my weaknesses and imperfections) with much to contribute, much to enjoy and much to learn; and from that, longing that others, too, might know something of that same belovedness and worth.

Hope

The second core motivation is one of hope: a longing for a world in which there is no more death or crying or mourning; where there is no more violence and abuse.

So how do these two motivations work out in the different dimensions of my life?

Safeguarding children

A search to better understand abuse and neglect and how we as a society can better protect children and support families
Using my experience and knowledge to support others in the challenging work of child protection
Continuing to work that out through my ongoing research into child abuse; continuing my involvement with BASPCAN and Child Abuse Review; offering my expertise to the new National Safeguarding Practice Review Panel; and as a new opportunity, exploring the possibility of a PhD in theology, focused on a deeper understanding of abuse and neglect

Preventing child deaths

Seeking to better understand the circumstances and systems that lead to children’s deaths, to learn from them, and to work to prevent future children’s deaths
Supporting professionals and strengthening systems for child death review
Supporting families who are coping with the death of a child
Working this out with my ongoing input to the Lullaby Trust and SUDC-UK, and continued engagement with others in this country and overseas who are involved in child death review; and in a new opportunity, working with UNICEF and the National Council for Family Affairs in Jordan to develop a child death review system for their country

Creating breathing space

With Lois, to develop Breathing Space as a safe, sacred space where any who come can experience peace and beauty, and know something of their own belovedness
Sharing something of the blessings with which we ourselves are blessed
Seeking to live sustainably with respect and care for creation, and a commitment to justice and peace
Working this out through our home, retreat house and garden; our involvement in spiritual direction; running retreats and quiet days; being able to study and write, to be creative, and to enjoy the goodness and joy of our families and friends

Quite how all this will pan out remains to be seen, but at this stage, with the prospects of a more relaxed pace of life, and new opportunities opening up to me, it feels good. Roll on October!

January 9, 2016January 9, 2016

In support of our junior doctors

“If you attack the people who provide the care in the NHS, attack the quality of care they are able to give their patients, attack their motives for providing that care, then they feel it personally and respond passionately”

Mark Porter, BMA Council Chair

I am hugely proud of the NHS, having been a part of it now for nearly 30 years.

Like my junior doctor colleagues I want to be able to continue to provide safe care for children and families and to make a difference to people’s lives.