United Kingdom: Statement from the RCP and Professor David Oliver, 18 July 2022

Professor David Oliver has made the difficult decision to withdraw from the presidency of the RCP, a role he was to commence in September when Sir Andrew Goddard steps down.

[…]

Professor Oliver (…) said:

"I put my heart and soul into the 2022 election process having stood once before for PRCP in 2018. Sadly, at around the time the election result was announced, I had become unwell after 2 years of COVID medicine and then catching COVID myself. Despite time off clinical work and medical support, I have simply not been able to recover in time to do the considerable job of being PRCP justice. (…)”

https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/news/statement-rcp-and-professor-david-oliver

https://twitter.com/user/status/1549117480429359104

 

Perhaps this will make Sir Goddard reconsider his stance on the NICE ME/CFS guideline?

 

I remember seeing some tweets from Oliver on ME/CFs issues that I thought were concerning (marginally worse than you'd expect from those deferring to the UK establishment) - it seems that a lot of his tweets have been deleted though soi I can't double check my memory.

 

Moved post

The statement appears unclear.

I had become unwell after two years of covid medicine and then catching covid myself.

Did he become unwell after two years of covid medicine, and then, additionally, catching covid? Or was it only after catching covid that he became unwell? It is entirely understandable that when ill it is difficult to be precise. It is however worth pointing out that there is room for doubt.

 

The nominations were announced on 28 January 2022 and the results declared on 11 April 2022. I would infer that he has become ill subsequent to the April announcement. The wording of "after two years of covid medicine" is concerning for framing as burnout after intense effort, rather than eg Long Covid following more recent viral infection (which I am merely surmising may be the case). Obviously we don't know details, but potentially there is an opportunity for those currently at the helm of these institutions to observe and learn firsthand.

 

He might mean that he was a doctor treating covid patients (covid medicine) for two years then caught it himself?

 

This is what I understood too.

 

Oliver expanded on his tweet here. There's only one paragraph about his own health:

"After two years of dodging the bullet I then caught covid myself in March, and, while not sick enough to be admitted, I haven’t been right since. Some of my symptoms have doubtless been covid related, but others were due to burnout, anxiety, and depression—eventually leading to my being signed off work sick in mid-May, unsure when I can return to clinical work. Having been elected as president of the Royal College of Physicians in April, I reluctantly and with great sadness had to withdraw from the role last week, as I no longer felt able to do it justice. If this has happened to me—a veteran, stress tempered NHS doctor, 33 years in the job, with no long term conditions and previously fairly robust—then few of us are likely to be exempt from the strains of the past couple of years."

 

AN excellent honest perspective of the effect of the pandemic on NHS staff

 

That's how I read it too.

 

The pandemic has revealed numerous cracks in Provincial health care systems in Canada.

Recently, staff shortages, sick leave, pandemic burn out etc., have resulted in short term emergency room (A & E) closures in various places across this country, especially in rural centres.

Millions in Canada do not have a family doctor.

The historically accepted fee for service model is under attack by many physicians who say high infrastructure, and support service costs now make this long accepted model unacceptable. Some have rejected the usual model whereby they are a business billing the government for each consult. Instead, they have opted to become government employees.

I don't know how it is in other countries, but our health care system really seems to be in trouble. The pandemic has certainly exacerbated these and many other health care system issues for individual medical practitioners, and patients.


(Hope this isn't too off topic.)