Workforce, airborne transmission, and wilful neglect

kabbasi@bmj.com Follow Kamran on Twitter @KamranAbbasi Earlier this month The BMJ and the Nuffield Trust hosted a roundtable discussion about the workforce crisis (https://soundcloud.com/bmjpodcasts/the-bmj-nuffield-trust-roundtable-2022-solving-retention-to-support-workforce-recovery, doi:10.1136/bmj.o578).12 We took in a wide range of perspectives, but the message was clear: the workforce crisis is urgent, it is affecting staff morale and wellbeing, it is damaging patient care, and it requires immediate action. Health professionals tend to be most comfortable when advocating on behalf of patients or society (doi:10.1136/bmj.o606, doi:10.1136/bmj.o643),1112 but sometimes that spirit can face overwhelming odds, just as in Ukraine (doi:10.1136/bmj.o676),13 where Russia has lost all sense of humanitarianism in its merciless and criminal destruction of health services and facilities (doi:10.1136/bmj.o701).14 With upwards of 10 million Ukrainian refugees, the humanitarian crisis triggered by Russia will not be confined by NATO boundaries, and it will have a lasting impact on regional health services and on health in many countries beyond Europe. Political common sense, however, is exactly what’s lacking (doi:10.1136/bmj.o740).16 The former health secretary for England, Jeremy Hunt, is so perplexed that he finds himself on the same side as the BMA in a campaign to “rebuild general practice” (doi:10.1136/bmj.o757).17 In another example, the government promises to tackle the ethnic pay gap and health inequalities without acknowledging the reality of structural racism (doi:10.1136/bmj.o735).18 And in another, staff absences are rising again as omicron’s BA.2 subvariant sweeps the lands (doi:10.1136/bmj.o737),19 but the latest guidance from the UK Health Security Agency now weakens the requirement for trusts to provide staff with respirator-grade protection (doi:10.1136/bmj.o733).20 It’s a policy that shames politicians and their science advisers alike.