How and why have we so hazardously misconceived our NHS staff?

Much of the world is anxiously stymied by COVID-19. Our assumptions of contemporary living simultaneously and shockingly unravelled and impassed. 'Unprecedented' is a common contemporary adjective, in the UK, our NHS was. early on, lionised and eulogised in heroic terms. Like religious ico...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of general practice 2021-01, Vol.71 (702), p.26-27
Main Author: Zigmond, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
COVID-19
Employee morale
Family physicians
Humans
Life & Times
Medical personnel
Pandemics
State Medicine
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Summary:Much of the world is anxiously stymied by COVID-19. Our assumptions of contemporary living simultaneously and shockingly unravelled and impassed. 'Unprecedented' is a common contemporary adjective, in the UK, our NHS was. early on, lionised and eulogised in heroic terms. Like religious icons or Soviet State art, its practitioners were referred to as saviours and martyrs. But this is very different from most of their experiences in recent years. At its start, this COVID crisis has, as emergencies do, galvanised a new cooperative and coiiegial motivation in many of our professionals as they have been albeit transiently again trusted to do their best to stem the alien tide. But although our enduring serious problems are temporarily out of sight we should beware: they remain, like perilous rocks, just beneath the water's surface. The warm mist of adoration has until it mostly passes obscured a serious problem that has grown increasingly erosive to our NHS for several years: the destabilising demoralisation of much of our workforce.
ISSN:0960-1643
1478-5242
DOI:10.3399/bjgp21X714485