Why are British doctors so radical?
P ICTURE THE British Medical Association ( BMA ), the main doctors' union, and you may imagine a professional body of tweed-wearers. It is more like a giant version of Extinction Rebellion, albeit ready to block health care, not roads. Its latest strike, a five-day walkout by resident (formerly known as junior) doctors, is to start on July 25th. How did they get so radical?
An overdue overhaul of an unloved industry
Really out-of-the-way places can slip through the financial-reporting cracks
Start with a proper look at what caused the problem
The two countries hope it will alleviate a set of mutual ailments
They have failed to focus on efficiency for the mass market
A rotten episode over Afghan refugees implicates much of the British state
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Scottish Sun
2 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
10 signs your kid has an addiction to gaming & how you can help them as a parent as the summer holidays get underway
Parents should set a good example by demonstrating a balanced approach to screen time and making healthy life choices GAME OVER 10 signs your kid has an addiction to gaming & how you can help them as a parent as the summer holidays get underway AS the summer holidays get underway, millions of kids are enjoying a much-needed break - which for many means playing video games. While gaming every now and then is not necessarily harmful, parents are being urged to watch out for early warning signs of a gaming addiction. 1 By recognising the signs and taking proactive steps parents can ensure their kid's well-being and foster a balanced lifestyle Credit: Getty Images - Getty Experts in the industry have emphasised the importance of spotting the symptoms as early as possible to reduce the harmful effects on a child's mental and physical wellbeing. Gaming addiction can result in a plethora of problems, including poor academic performance, social withdrawal, and health issues. Marin Cristian-Ovidiu, CEO of gaming website FreezeNova, told Mirror: "Gaming addiction, like any addiction, requires a holistic approach to treatment and support. "It's important to address not just the symptoms but also the underlying causes and contributing factors." Marin added: "Early intervention and consistent support are key in helping children develop a healthy relationship with gaming.'' By recognising the signs and taking proactive steps, the expert said, parents can ensure their kid's well-being and foster a balanced lifestyle. Chatting to the publication, Marin also listed ten common signs your child has developed a gaming addiction. Preoccupation with gaming - constantly thinking about gaming, even when not playing. Withdrawal symptoms - feeling irritable or anxious when not playing. Increasing time spent gaming - gradually needing to spend more time playing to feel satisfied. This American-style summer camp for kids is in the UK Unsuccessful attempts to cut down - repeatedly trying and failing to reduce gaming time. Loss of interest in other activities - neglecting hobbies and activities that were once enjoyed. Continuing to game despite problems - ignoring physical or emotional issues caused by gaming. Deceiving others about gaming - lying to family or friends about the amount of time spent gaming. Using gaming to escape negative moods - playing games to avoid feelings of depression or anxiety. Risking relationships and opportunities - sacrificing social and educational opportunities to game. Neglecting personal hygiene and health - skipping meals, sleep, or hygiene to continue gaming. How to survive six weeks of school summer holidays IF you are struggling with the six week summer holidays, you've come to the right place... BATTLING BOREDOM: Despite hours of activities and playdates, if your kids are already complaining there's nothing to do, parenting expert Liat Hughes Joshi says: 'Don't feel you have to organise every second of the holidays. Kids benefit from boredom and learn to make their own fun. 'Boredom can trigger creative and imaginative play but you need to encourage kids to get used to not being told how to spend their time. 'Ride out the pleas of boredom. Counter it with comments such as, 'What do you think you could do?' and maybe have a list of 'I'm bored' activity ideas on the fridge.' SCREEN OVERLOAD: It's tempting during the holidays to rely on a digital babysitter but don't let them gawp their whole summer away in front of a screen. Liat says: 'It's unfair to expect older kids to power down but it's important to set some ground rules. 'Set family tech rules together. If you're often distracted by your phone, follow the rules too. Maybe tell the kids they aren't allowed any screen time until they've done set chores, some exercise, or a board game. 'Are there times when you'd like to ban screens completely? Perhaps during dinner or when they have friends over to visit. 'Tech is a battleground for parents, but you have to set boundaries. Stand firm and be prepared to be unpopular.' TOO MUCH TOGETHERNESS: You love your kids, but being with them 24/7 can be exhausting. Do not feel guilty if you need a bit of downtime. Liat says: 'If you're juggling work and household tasks as well as occupying the kids, it's normal to start feeling overwhelmed or jaded and in need of some peace. 'If you can't afford or don't want to send your kids to all-day camps, look for free kids' workshops so you can get on with jobs or have a break for a couple of hours. 'Seeking a spell of quiet every now and then doesn't make you a bad parent — in fact it will probably make you more positive and enthusiastic when you are with the kids.' SCHEDULING CONFLICT: Schedules can go out the window during holidays, but late nights and early mornings can mean tired and unhappy children. Dr Tamara Bugembe, paediatrician and founder of says: 'Children get grumpy, test boundaries and become challenging when routines are broken. 'Sticking to some kind of routine during the holidays is a good idea. 'We release hormones at different times of the day and when regular meal times and bed times are broken, it causes dips and peaks in mood. 'Holidays are about having fun but an early night once or twice a week will make everyone happier.' EXCESS ENERGY: Make sure kids get out in the fresh air to tire them out — and make them healthier and happier. Dr Bugembe says: 'Sunshine also tops up vital vitamin D levels which helps improve bone strength and energy levels in children. Our levels run low in winter so let the kids stock up in warmer weather. 'Letting them run around in shorts and a T-shirt is the best way to top up. Make sure they're wearing sun cream, get outside and have fun. 'Encourage them to try healthy habits such as cycling and walking. They'll hopefully get hooked and want to carry them on when the weather gets colder.' How you can help as a parent Tackling gaming addiction involves a comprehensive approach, emphasised the expert. Parents can begin by establishing clear limits regarding the amount of time your child is permitted to game each day, ensuring it doesn't clash with other responsibilities and activities. The child should also be encouraged to get involved in sports, hobbies, and other activities away from screens. It is also vital for children to have a balanced daily schedule that has dedicated time for homework, household chores, physical exercise, and gaming. Plus, it's always essential key to keep an eye on the content they play to ensure they're suitable for their age and not likely to lead to addiction. Parents should set a good example by demonstrating a balanced approach to screen time and making healthy life choices.
Times
3 hours ago
- Times
Up all night with ravers, nuns and shiftworkers
Arifa Akbar is scared of the dark. Her British-Pakistani parents told her horrifying tales of creatures that appeared at night, stories 'of djinns capable of immense violence, of daayans with feet on backwards, disembowelling their victims with their bare hands'. She sleeps with a curtain open to let the light of the street lamps stream through the window and travels with a plug-in nightlight. As the Guardian's chief theatre critic Akbar often has to work late into the night. In Wolf Moon, her lyrical examination of the world between dusk and dawn, she acknowledges the ridiculousness of her night-time anxieties. 'But if there really is nothing to fear, why do I feel so viscerally afraid as the dark levitates towards me, everything and nothing thrumming inside it?' The book is part reporting, part memoir. Akbar writes about her father, who was a security guard, first on the railways and then at the Courtauld gallery in London, working night shifts in both jobs. Akbar observed how his work seemed to change him, 'his skin growing sallower by the day as if he were jaundiced, his thinking confused. He was always on the brink of an unarticulated panic.' He now lives in a care home and has dementia, a health risk linked to nocturnal working. At night he can be distressed — a phenomenon called sundowning when those with dementia begin to hallucinate as the day darkens. 'There are times when he holds on to my hand tightly as if he fears being sucked under by quicksand, and tells me the sky is spinning.' There are about nine million night shift workers in Britain. As well as causing dementia, working at night can cause cardiovascular disease, obesity and depression. The work is also more likely to be low-paid and insecure. Akbar speaks to some of these late-night workers. At a care home in Hertfordshire the carers describe how after their night shift they take their children to school, then pick them up later with barely time to sleep during the day. At New Spitalfields Market in Leyton, east London, she watches hundreds of HGVs queue at midnight to unload fruit and vegetables — 'a lush, vegetative oasis within the city'. She spends the night at the Convent of Poor Clares in Ellesmere, Shropshire, rising with the nuns at midnight to sing matins and again for lauds at 6:30am. • 12 exceptional memoirs from the past 30 years to read next However, some people come alive at night. Akbar goes to Berghain, an LGBT nightclub in Berlin, and dances with a Brazilian trans woman who has been attending for 13 years and an Austrian postman who often stays in the club from Saturday through to Monday. Akbar feels transfigured in the club's darkness. 'I am no longer a responsible homeowner, journalist and carer of elderly parents,' she writes. 'I am no more or less than my silver-black dress and gold eyelashes.' She meets the poet and playwright Debris Stevenson who has been a raver for decades. 'You're less self-conscious in the dark, more embodied and there's a wildness to dancing outside,' Stevenson says. Yet at raves she has been catcalled and filmed without permission and has had to intervene in dangerous situations. She says the sight of men forcing kisses on unconscious women is commonplace. In Lahore, where Akbar spent some of her childhood, she watches a late-night comedy show. After the performance some of the female dancers sell sex to the audience members. An elderly sex worker describes how the work has become more dangerous as stricter laws force them to travel to meet clients in unknown locations. While djinns and daayans may be imagined, the threat of violence at night is real. Sarah Everard's twilight abduction, rape and murder sparked a wave of protests about the risk of walking the streets at night as a woman. But it was hardly a new danger. Akbar attends one of the popular Jack the Ripper tours that trace the murder spots of east London. I went on one of these tours once and a man in my group commented on which of the murdered women was the most attractive. These threats aren't just abstract to Akbar. Her sister Fauzia, whose death was the subject of her first book, Consumed, struggled as a teenager with compulsive eating. She would bribe Akbar and her brother to go to a supermarket at night to buy her food. In her twenties she fell into a depression and became homeless. • Read more book reviews and interviews — and see what's top of the Sunday Times Bestsellers List At her hungriest Fauzia would go through bins on the streets. After her death by undiagnosed tuberculosis Akbar's family agonised over how she had contracted the disease. They wondered if it happened in this dark and desperate time of her life. What might otherwise feel like a random collection of vignettes is threaded together by Akbar's grief for her sister and her anxiety for her father. Wolf Moon is a celebration of the exuberance of night-time and a moving portrait of the dangers of the dark. Wolf Moon: A Woman's Journey into the Night by Arifa Akbar (Sceptre £16.99 pp256). To order a copy go to Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Resident doctors' strike undermines union movement, Wes Streeting says
A strike by resident doctors 'enormously undermines the entire trade union movement', Wes Streeting has argued, urging them not to join industrial action on Friday morning. In an article for the Guardian, the health secretary says the decision by the British Medical Association (BMA) to push for new strikes in England immediately after receiving a pay rise of 22% to cover 2023-24 and 2024-25 is unreasonable and unprecedented. Taking aim squarely at the leadership of the BMA, which represents the medics formerly known as junior doctors, Streeting condemns their demand for a fresh 29% rise over the next few years. He says that while there was 90% backing for the strike, it was on a turnout of just over 55% of members. Streeting says the move to strike after the offer of a 5.4% pay rise for 2025-26, was rushed into and is 'bitterly disappointing' amid efforts to improve NHS services. 'There was a deal here to be done,' he writes. 'Instead, the BMA leadership's decision to not even consider postponing these strikes will place an enormous burden on their colleagues, and hit the recovery we can all see our health service is making. 'Not only that, it enormously undermines the entire trade union movement. No trade union in British history has seen its members receive a such a steep pay rise only to immediately respond with strikes – even when a majority of their members didn't even vote to strike. This action is unprecedented, and it is unreasonable.' The BMA argues that resident doctors have seen their pay fall by a much greater amount in real terms since 2008-09 than the rest of the population. 'Doctors are not worth less than they were 17 years ago, when austerity policies began driving wages down. We're simply asking for that value to be restored,' it said. Streeting says resident doctors have privately contacted him to express their dismay at the decision to strike, saying they 'feel the BMA's leaders are out of lockstep with not just patients but most resident doctors themselves'. The health secretary urges doctors to defy their union and not join in the strike, which runs until 7am next Wednesday. 'I am urging resident doctors to not follow the BMA leadership, who I do not believe are representing the best interests of their members, any further down this path as strikes begin on Friday at 7am,' he writes. The public have been urged to keep coming forward for NHS care during the strike, and NHS England has urged hospital chief executives to keep routine operations and appointments and only reschedule if there is a risk to patient safety. A Department of Health and Social Care blog noted that the NHS was 'taking a different approach' after learning lessons from previous strikes, and would avoid cancelling planned appointments for illnesses such as cancer because this posed 'a risk to patients too'. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion On Wednesday, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges urged the BMA to suspend its guidance to resident doctors that they do not have to share their intentions to strike with their employers – as is their entitlement under employment law – to enable hospitals to better plan. It is understood that in previous strikes, healthcare leaders filled rota gaps of unknown size by overstaffing and cancelling procedures, with the result that there was insufficient work for some highly paid consultants. Fewer resident doctors are expected to go on strike on Friday than in the previous round of industrial action that started in 2023 after the BMA achieved a smaller mandate in the strike ballot. Of 48,000 members, 55% voted, of whom 90% supported industrial action – representing less than half of members – compared with a turnout of 71.25% in 2023, of whom 43,440 (or 98.37%) voted to go on strike. The numbers of striking doctors is expected to vary between hospitals and trusts, with anticipated staff rota gaps filled locally by consultants, agency doctors and other NHS staff. Hospital leaders will monitor demand and if they are overwhelmed with patients they will have contingency plans in place, for example cancelling some appointments to prioritise urgent and emergency care, calling in extra bank or agency staff, or requesting derogations – where resident doctors are called in to work – with the BMA. The Health Service Journal (HSJ) reported that the NHS England chief, Sir Jim Mackey, had told trust leaders to crack down on resident doctors' ability to earn money during the strike by working locum shifts.
