Doctors, nurses, and patients are posting pictures of themselves online along with messages of support for the National Health Service.
Here's my #NHSselfie 😊 Thanks to the #NHS I'm not an orphan ❤️ @NHSselfie @IminworkJeremy @drsalwamalik @cmrwdk
The #NHSselfie campaign, started by an apolitical network of doctors called Medicine for the NHS, is hoping to show politicians that people believe in a publicly funded health service at a time when the NHS faces the prospect of funding cuts and criticism over care and safety levels.
According to NHS regulator the Care Quality Commission's annual report, two-thirds of hospitals are offering substandard care, and safety levels are not good enough in almost three-quarters of hospitals.
The report warns that pressure to cut costs could contribute to further worsening of the health service, while understaffing and funding issues are already contributing to inadequate care in 65% of hospitals, The Guardian said.
Tell me your story! #NHSselfie
"It is our belief, as doctors, that the NHS is at risk of collapse due to a lack of funding," Medicine for the NHS says on its website, calling on the medical community to "show us how much you love it".
midwives are joining #NHSselfie #nhs
Many doctors have taken the opportunity to highlight the large number of hours they work.
#NHSselfie whilst you sleep, we work...Sweet dreams, Jeremy!
Doctors' hours are at the centre of an ongoing row over a new junior doctors’ contract proposed by health secretary Jeremy Hunt with the aim of creating a “7-day NHS”.
The new contract could see “sociable working hours” for which junior doctors are paid a standard rate change from 7am-7pm Monday to Friday to 7am-10pm Monday to Saturday. Doctors have said that the contract also removes safeguards that mean hospitals can be penalised for overworking juniors.
The NHS cured my cancer and paid for IVF so I have moments like this #NHSselfie #juniorcontract #notfairnotsafe
The British Medical Association has described the proposed junior doctors' contracts as "bad for patients, bad for junior doctors, and bad for the NHS".
I'm the Consultant on the Labour Ward today. 0800 am until 2200 pm. #NHSselfie
Doctors have also expressed concern that the removal of incremental pay increases would impact on their ability to progress through expensive training and lead to shortages in specialties.
#NHSselfie #juniorcontract @johannmalawana its not just hours at work its all the extras2make ourselves better Drs
“The proposed new model of tiered, incremental pay (three tiers throughout training) would mean that I would have no increase in pay for six years,” Bernadette Lomas, a 34-year-old junior doctor training in anaesthesia, recently told BuzzFeed News.
Worse, she said, is that “progression through the tiers would depend on a review at the point that I complete a full-time equivalent year: If this fell outside the annual review period for trainees, I could be waiting more than six years.”
My team! @NHSselfie #NHSselfie
Ultimately, doctors have said, it is patients who stand to suffer the most if the contract changes impact on recruitment and retention of doctors, leading to further staff shortages.
@NHSselfie The NHS saved my bacon. Keep up the great work. #NHSselfie
In September, thousands of doctors marched to Downing Street to protest the changes, chanting that the new contracts were "not safe, not fair".
The NHS has saved my life more than once. Please support our NHS #NHSselfie @NHSEngland @NHSselfie @butNHS
Last week Hunt wrote to the BMA to outline “cast-iron assurances” in the ongoing negotiations over junior doctors’ contracts, but many doctors still find Hunt's proposals inadequate.
Dr Sundeep Grewal, a registrar in geriatric medicine, told BuzzFeed News the letter is “not worth the paper it's written on – a tree died for nothing”. He said that “it doesn’t address concerns at all. It offers the assurance we won’t work more than 48 hours a week, but we’ve got that assurance now, and we still work more hours than we should."
On Saturday 17 October, more than 16,000 doctors plan to march to Westminster to continue to protest the proposed changes.
#NHSselfie #juniorcontract - please attend on Saturday 17th October along with 15,000 other ppl to protect our NHS
“We will not go away until meaningful negotiations have happened and this is resolved, Grewal told us. "We’re not going to stop.”